Spring 2011 - Spelman College

THE
ALUMNAE
VOLUME
MAGAZINE
121
OF
NUMBER
SPELMAN
2
SPRING
COLLEGE
2011
A Choice to Change the World
S P E L M A N
Messenger
EDITOR
Jo Moore Stewart
WRITERS
Marian Wright Edelman
Lorraine Robertson
TaRessa Stovall
Angela Brown Terrell
COPY EDITOR
Janet M. Barstow
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Garon Hart
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Eloise A. Alexis, C’86
Joyce Davis
Tomika DePriest, C’89
Kassandra Kimbriel Jolley
Sharon E. Owens, C’76
Kenique Penn, C’2000
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Bobby Holland
Bud Smith
Spelman College Archives
Jo Moore Stewart
Julie Yarbrough, C’91
WORD PORTRAITS
Jo Moore Stewart
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, C’66
Bill & Camille Cosby
Tomika DePriest, C’89
TaRessa Stovall
Calida Garcia Rawles, C’98
M. Akua McDaniels, C’69
Carnelle Holloway, C’79
Lev T. Mills
Eloise Alexis, C’86
LaKeeta Howard, C’79
A. Michelle Smith, C’69
Tanya Coleman, C’72
Tina McElroy Ansa, C’71
Donald & Isabel Stewart
Johnnetta Cole
Beverly Daniel Tatum
The Spelman Messenger is published twice a year (Fall
and Spring) by Spelman College, 350 Spelman Lane, S.W.,
Atlanta, Georgia 30314-4399, free of charge for alumnae,
donors, trustees and friends of the College. Recipients wishing to change the address to which the Spelman Messenger is sent should notify the editor, giving both old and new
addresses. Third-class postage paid at Atlanta, Georgia.
Publication No. 510240
C R E D O
Cert no. SCS-COC-001058
The Spelman Messenger, founded in 1885, is dedicated to participating in the ongoing
education of our readers through enlightening articles designed to promote lifelong
learning. The Spelman Messenger is the alumnae magazine of Spelman College and is
committed to educating, serving and empowering Black women.
S P E L M A N
Contents
Messenger
VOLUME 121, NUMBER 2
SPRING 2011
ON THE COVER
1984 “Spelman the Spirit of Success”
by Varnette P. Honeywood:
6
Varnette P. Honeywood: An Original
WORD PORTRAITS
18
Alumnae Keeping It Real
B Y T A R E S S A S T O VA L L
2
4
23
30
Voices
Books & Papers
Alumnae Notes
In Memoriam
Remembering Varnette Honeywood
Artist captured positive view of Black life
BY MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN, C’60
PHOTO: JULIE YARBROUGH, C91
Voices
CHILD WATCH ® COLUMN
2
A
rtist Varnette Honeywood had a clear
vision of how she perceived Black people and families and a gift for sharing
her joyful, colorful perspective with
the rest of the world. Her paintings
became familiar to fans everywhere after several
of them, including “Birthday,” were featured in
the Huxtables’ home on The Cosby Show. She
was a dear friend to the Children’s Defense
Fund and the illustrator and creator of our
beautiful logo for the Black Community Crusade for Children’s Leave No Child Behind ®
movement. Her death in September at age 59
was a sad loss for all of us.
Varnette grew up in Los Angeles, where her
parents, who had migrated from Mississippi
and Louisiana, were both elementary school
teachers. She remembered that she and her
beloved sister Stephanie would often help them
test art projects they had designed for their students. Her parents nurtured her childhood
talent, and Varnette started taking art classes at
age 12. As an undergraduate at Spelman College, my alma mater, she originally planned to
study history and become a teacher like her parents, but her drawing teacher and fellow
students who saw her early work strongly
encouraged her to change her major. She graduated with a degree in art in 1972.
After Spelman, Varnette returned to Los
Angeles, where she got a master’s degree in education from the University of Southern California
and began working as an art teacher and developed what became her signature artistic style of
simple silhouettes and bold colors. Just as
important as her innovative style was her choice
of subjects. At a time when many other Black
artists were depicting poverty or struggle in
their work, Varnette often chose family themes
or portrayed church or community gatherings.
She was deeply influenced by her own close
family and childhood summers she spent with
her extended family in Mississippi and her art
showed loving, vibrant, joyful and positive
scenes from Black life.
In the mid 1970s she and her
sister Stephanie founded their
own distribution company,
Varnette P. Honeywood
Founders Day 2005
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
“Leave No Child Behind” by Varnette P. Honeywood
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
Varnette also created posters for CDF’s teen
pregnancy prevention campaign and Beat the
Odds ® awards program and charged not one
penny. Although she was one of the nation’s
most prominent Black artists, she was always a
caring mentor and generous friend who never
lost her original calling to teach and reach back
to help others. She used her gift to uplift and
inspire other people. I am so grateful for Varnette Honeywood’s life and all of the beauty and
joy she leaves behind in her work.
PHOTO: BUD SMITH
Black Lifestyles, which featured Varnette’s work
on posters, prints and note cards. Honorary
Spelman alumna Camille Cosby and husband
Bill began collecting her work after seeing one
of her sets of cards. When Bill Cosby had the
opportunity to help choose artwork for the set of
The Cosby Show, he knew the look and feel of
Varnette’s paintings would be a perfect fit. They
partnered again when she created the artwork
for his children’s book series Little Bill, which
became an award-winning animated television
show. The Little Bill series again showcased Varnette’s signature talent for depicting a positive,
loving Black family. Creating these kinds of
images for Black children was always a deliberate
goal in her work.
As an art teacher in Los Angeles, Varnette
worked in a juvenile detention program and
designed a multicultural arts curriculum for use
in the public schools. She understood the power
positive images could have on children’s selfesteem and development. When the Children’s
Defense Fund’s Black Community Crusade for
Children was launched, we wanted to convey
the ideas of love, warmth, family, unity and
community caring for children that represented
our mission. She was the first and obvious
choice to create the logo. The gorgeous result,
Leave No Child Behind, shows four sets of strong
Black adults of all shades, each standing behind
and firmly and protectively embracing a beautiful Black child’s shoulders – a gesture of loving
protection and guidance.
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN, C’60 ,
is President of
the Children’s Defense Fund and its Action Council whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to
ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a
Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life
and successful passage to adulthood with the help of
caring families and communities.
3
Books&Papers
4
BOOK REVIEWS
ANGELA BROWN TERRELL
The Warmth of Other Suns
by Isabel Wilkerson.
(Random House)
It took 10 years of intensive
research and interviewing over
a thousand people, for Pulitzer
Prize Winning journalist Isabel
Wilkerson to pull together this
epic document that chronicles
the Great Migration from
1915 to the 1970s of some six
million African Americans
from the South to northern
and western states.
Fed up with the South’s abusive Jim Crow laws, subsistent
wages and poor educational
facilities, Black families looked
to improve their lives with the
promises of better jobs and
housing to be found in cities
like Chicago, New York and
Los Angeles.
Many of the migrant families found disillusionment in
their move, however, since discrimination and poverty were
often present in their new
homes as well. On the positive
side, many found a sense of
freedom through better-paying
jobs, more available education
and the right to vote to make
changes in their communities.
Wilkerson followed the
moves of three individuals to
tell this compelling tale of massive relocation. In 1937, Ida
Mae Gladney left sharecropping
in Mississippi for a blue-collar
life in Chicago; she wound up
voting for then State Senator
Barack Obama. George Swanson Starling’s hot temper caused
him to flee from Florida in 1945
for Harlem. But he continued
fighting for civil rights on his job
in the North. Robert Foster left
Louisiana in 1953 to study
medicine in Atlanta, where he
met and married Alice Clement,
C’41, the daughter of Atlanta
University’s president, Dr. Rufus
Clement. The family finally settled in Los Angeles where, after
many struggles, Dr. Foster’s
career led him to become personal physician to Ray Charles
and other notables.
How these people traded
cruelty, pain and personal
deprivation for the hope of a
better life for themselves and
others, is a tribute to the perseverance and spiritual strength
of the African American. Their
experiences are a microcosm
of what so many others have
endured.
Wilkerson’s compelling
prose was honed during her
extensive journalism career.
She won the Pulitzer in 1994
for feature writing as the
Chicago bureau chief of The
New York Times, and she has
taught narrative nonfiction at
Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, Princeton, Emory and
Boston Universities.
All of this makes The
Warmth of Other Suns (title
taken from a poem by Richard
Wright), a fascinating, easy-toread, extensive, fact-filled
journey that will enlighten the
reader about a little-known era
of American history.
Just Wanna Testify by Pearl
Cleage. (One World)
Author Pearl Cleage, C’71, is
not shy when it comes to writing stories with new challenges.
In Just Wanna Testify, she tackles another worldly theme in
the familiar West End neighborhood in Atlanta, the setting
of several of her novels.
This time, the mystical Blue
Hamilton, former R&B singer
with many past lives who has
cleared the community of
crime, tackles the unknown
when five gorgeous vampires,
called “The Too Fine Five,”
come to town to model for a
cover photo spread for Essence
magazine. Suspecting ulterior
motives, Blue, a kind of anticrime godfather, is bent on
finding out what the undead
beauties are really up to, especially since their presence
involves his wife Regina and
photographer friend Althea,
hired to shoot the scenes.
The models, who are
extremely tall, thin and pale,
glide about in their five-inch
super spiked heels to their
assignments, never smiling,
and causing a stir of wonder
and excitement wherever they
appear. Where did they come
from? If they are truly vampires, what do they feed on? Is
the community in danger? And
is Blue in danger, since the super
vamp leader, Serena, seems to
have her eyes especially on him.
How Blue and his colleagues go about discovering
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
the background and motives
of the vamps, while preventing fear and panic from
spreading among the people,
is artfully handled by Cleage,
with the suspense, romance
and humor for which her
books are known. As always, a
bit of folklore is added to provide us with some cultural
education. The narrative will
keep readers turning pages
nonstop to see how these
mysteries are unraveled.
Those who are familiar with
her previous books, will be
glad to be re-acquainted with
her characters to see how their
lives are evolving.
One thing is sure, Pearl
Cleage is not going to let you
guess if or how Blue and his
“peeps” will solve this mystery
– you’ll be surprised to the
end. But you can be sure that
love rules.
“Some Cry, Some Sing”
by Ntozake Shange and Ifa
Bayeza. (St. Martin Press)
At the end of the Civil War,
former slaves Bette Mayfield
and her granddaughter
Eudora leave the South Carolina plantation they shared
as home and head for a free
life in Charleston. Thus
begins a tale of several generations of Mayfields – Black
and white – and how both
slavery and freedom defined
their lives.
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
Woven into the women’s
survival is the gift of music,
which threads its way through
their history, providing spiritual relief, expressing pain
and celebrating freedom,
from the plantation to the
Harlem Renaissance and into
the 21st century. The women
of each generation sing to dry
tears, to soothe pain, to feel
joy. Slavery, segregation, family disunity, World Wars,
discrimination, epidemics –
nothing could stop the music
that poured from one generation to the next.
The women sing ancient
African chants brought to the
new world during the Middle
Passage, their songs: gospel,
jazz, blues, opera, R&B, and
rap. Each era brings a new
song to live by.
Award-winning writer
Ntozake Shange (For Colored
Girls Who Have Considered
Suicide/When The Rainbow Is
Enuf) and her sister, playwright Ifa Bayeza (The Ballad
of Emmett Till) have delved
into American history, giving
new life to forgotten facts, as
they weave this saga of family
in elegant, poetic prose.
As Liberty, the current
generation daughter, a DJ,
spins music for a party, she
sums up the power of the
family’s lives: “The music
always the music, as soon as
it’s born fading away, giving
birth to somethin’ else and
somethin’ new…New life. To
the seventh generation….
This night, this dance, this
song …she laid down a groove
that surged…the crowd catching the spirit… Everyone is
there, in call and response,
callin’ up the ancestors and
wakin’ the yet to be born, the
notes dancing in the air, a
world without bounds at the
tip of her fingers, the music,
always the music.”
The New Jim Crow:
Mass Incarceration in the
Age of Colorblindness,
by Michelle Alexander.
(The New Press)
It’s no secret that the incarceration of young Black men
and other minorities in the
United States far outnumbers
that of white offenders, even
though the crimes committed
are the same – for example,
the use and distribution of
illegal drugs.
Civil rights and racial justice
advocate, Michelle Alexander, has compiled the needed
statistics and studies to point
out that racial discrimination
in the justice system is real,
and that it has become big
business in many communities, with prisons providing
economic stability to areas
that have lost jobs and businesses to overseas ventures.
The result, she writes, is that
racial injustice has the same
effect of creating a secondclass caste system as did the
Jim Crow laws of the past.
The facts: “The United
States now has the highest
incarceration rate in the
world…” Alexander writes,
adding, “The racial dimension of mass incarceration is
its most striking feature. No
other country in the world
imprisons so many of its
racial or ethnic minorities.”
In this subject, Michelle
Alexander is armed with an
impressive background. She
served as director of the
Racial Justice Project at the
ACLU in Northern California, directed the Civil Rights
Clinics at Stanford University
Law School, and is now a
joint appointee at the Kirwan
Institute for the Study of
Race and Ethnicity and the
Moritz College of Law at
Ohio State University. She
also is a former law clerk for
U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Harry Blackmun.
This volume documents
the need for concerned citizens to take a fresh look at the
new forms of discrimination
that are fashioned to trap
minorities in a paralyzing caste
system that can keep exoffenders, even those with
small infractions, from job
opportunities, the ability to
vote and adequate housing.
Despite advances for many
African Americans since the
Civil Rights movement, for
example, Alexander notes
that the poverty rate among
black people has not improved.
We need, Alexander writes,
“If we want to do more than
just end mass incarceration
… we must lay down our
racial bribes, join hands with
people of all colors who are
not content to wait for
change to trickle down, and
say to those who would stand
in our way: Accept all of us or
none.”
ANGELA BROWN TERRELL is a
writer and editor based in
Columbia, Maryland.
5
Messenger
F E A T U R E
VARNETTE P. HONEYWOOD, C’72: AN ORIGINAL
T
PHOTO: JO MOORE STEWART
here is nothing in the world like an original. Varnette P.
Honeywood was an original. Likewise, there is nothing as
colorful, nothing as powerful, nothing as rich as an original
piece of artwork created by Varnette P. Honeywood.
I am one of the fortunate to witness her talent in progress and to
document her version of Spelman College as we shared a twin vision,
collaborated and persevered for over 25 years. During this period of
time, we converted her brilliant originals into holiday cards, event
posters, brochures, inaugural invitations, campaign collaterals,
admission packages, books, postcards, Founders Day and Reunion
programs, and numerous Spelman Messengers. In the process, Varnette
changed the color and texture of Spelman’s world.
This Varnette Honeywood timeline is only a reproduction of her
art. It merely offers a glimpse of the intensity of her originals. This
documentation of her Spelman artwork leaves all
of us begging for more.
The timeline begins with Honeywood’s first
Spelman exhibition in 1981. Since this documentation of her work will continue to evolve
far beyond the 125th anniversary Spelman
College Founders Day celebration in 2006,
there is no closing date. In fact, even in Varnette’s last life moments, she shared with her
cousin that she had caught a quick image of
her long- departed infant brother. She
explained, “He is so beautiful! I wish I could
paint him for you.”
Revelation is the book of visions and symbols. It ends with a picture of a new heaven
and a new earth. Indeed, Varnette Honeywood left Spelman College with a bright open
ending because she was an original.
Jo Moore Stewart
Editor, Spelman Messenger
Sister Friend to Varnette P. Honeywood
Editor’s Note: The following Word Portraits of
Varnette P. Honeywood have been lovingly shared by
members of the art and Spelman College communities.
6
VARNETTE HONEYWOOD: GENIUS
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, C’66
Professor and Director of the Spelman College
Women’s Research & Resource Center
“We are a people. A people do not throw their
Geniuses away. If they do, it is our duty as witnesses
for the future to collect them again for the sake of our
children. If necessary bone by bone.”
Alice Walker
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist
Former Spelman Student ( 1961–1963)
At the very beginning our sister/friend was present.
When the Women’s Research & Resource Center,
founded in 1981, held its “coming out” event October 21–23, 1982, the first symposium at Spelman on
Black women and public policy issues, we chose Varnette Honeywood’s “African Women,” an acrylic on
canvas, for our theme poster. Having graduated from
Spelman only a decade earlier in 1972, Varnette was
pleased about her important artistic role in
the Center’s inaugural public gathering,
“Black Women and Public Policy: Issues
for the 80s.” We chose her riveting portrayal of African women because we
wanted to capture visually the uniqueness of the Center’s mission. We were
the first women’s research center on a
historically Black college campus, and
the only women’s center in the U.S.
academy whose focus was women of
African descent.
In her keynote address, Dr. Margaret
B. Wilkerson, former director of the
Center for the Study, Education and
Advancement of Women at the University of California at Berkeley, former
program officer at the Ford Foundation, and now Lorraine Hansberry’s
official biographer, had this to say: “And now
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
an original
the nerve of us here to take two days out of hectic
and demanding schedules to discuss policy for Black
women in the 1980s in the midst of the Reaganomics
era, a time in which our complaints are lost in a sea of
human misery caused by unemployment or ignored
in the din of jubilation over a bullish stock market.”
Despite the “spectre of the plight of our sisters,” in
Wilkerson’s words, there were Varnette’s defiant
Black women, standing tall, determined, in solidarity
– reminding us of the “nerve” of Black women, in
Wilkerson’s words again, our resilience, our beauty,
our grace in struggle.
When Varnette was asked to create images for
our 125th anniversary keepsake, “Spelman: A
Woman’s Place, 1881–2006,” I thought about the
power of her art. Inspired by her genius at capturing the realities of Black womanhood, I described
Spelman for the first time as...a scholarly place, a
sacred place, an activist place, an artful place...a
woman’s place!!! I have never been more pleased
with anything I ever wrote about Spelman. I am
sure that staring at Varnette’s initial drawings provided the inspiration for the final page of the
booklet. The original artwork, “The River That
Flows Through Time,” reminded me of “African
Women” and that historic gathering in 1982. In
her new commissioned painting, there was the
magnificent lineup of determined, self-assured
Black women, which began with a sister draped in
Kente cloth, perhaps from Ghana. Shoulder to
shoulder, holding on to each other, there were
Black women from different generations, with different hues, different hairstyles, different sizes and,
of course, Spelman women dressed in blue and
white. I cannot recall any other Black artist who
captured with such delight the bonds that connect
Black women in the ways that Varnette did. There
is no artist, to be sure, that painted the Spelman
story as Varnette did, over and over again, and no
one more loyal. I am convinced that Varnette is still
singing the hymn, “Spelman, thy name we praise . . .
We’ll ever faithful be. Throughout eternity.”
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
“African Women” by Varnette P. Honeywood
“The River That Flows Through Time” by Varnette P. Honeywood
7
COVER DESIGN: JO MOORE STEWART
COVER DESIGN: JO MOORE STEWART
PHOTO: BUD SMITH
1996 Program Cover of the Cosby Academic Center opening
1987 Production of
The Cosby Show on
Spelman’s Campus
Messenger/Annual Report Cover
Varnette P. Honeywood: Collectible
Drs. Bill & Camille Cosby
The Black Lifestyles note cards, by Varnette P. Honeywood, were the influences
for us to become collectors of her paintings and collages. We were thrilled to see
profound, unambiguous, positive
imageries of Black people. Some specific
highlights of Ms. Honeywood’s artistry
that were and are meaningful to us:
1. The vivid colors in her compositions
2. An acknowledgement of the varied
skin colors clearly evident among
African Americans, and respect for
their hair textures and body shapes
3. The diversity of the lives of African
Americans, which was often overlooked by her contemporaries
4. And that skillful humor that was frequently in her art made us smile
In total, those characteristics rendered
new definitions of people of color.
When Bill developed the character of
Little Bill for Scholastic books, Ms.
Honeywood was his immediate choice
to illustrate that beautiful small child.
He knew that she would imbue in Little
Bill the human qualities that people
would find identifiable and lovable.
So he then chose Ms. Honeywood’s
paintings to enhance the home of the
Huxtable family on The Cosby Show.
Bill felt that her works and his had synergistic themes of family, protection and
love.
8
The loss of Ms. Honeywood is difficult; but her creativity is in perpetuity.
Her magnificent art enables us to feel the
warmth and, most importantly, the truths
about a people who have been consistently maligned in history, media and art.
Varnette Honeywood: Symbol
Robust, Distinct, Diverse: Definitely
Honeywood, Definitively Spelman
Tomika DePriest, C’89
Executive Director of Communications
at Spelman
I was very definite in my choice to attend
Spelman College. There were other
strong possibilities, but it was Spelman
that struck the most significant chord
within me. And it was the power of the
images that I associated with Spelman
that cemented my college decision.
These images were robust, distinct
and diverse: Black women with different
career backgrounds, from different walks
of life and in a multitude of shades and
sizes. Robust, distinct and diverse is how
I identified with them, along with the
attributes smart, beautiful, family-oriented, creative, community-focused,
spiritual – the list goes on. I also consumed these images through the artwork
of Varnette Honeywood, to whom I was
introduced through the College.
As a student, I saw her distinct images
broadly displayed – on admission materials, note cards and posters that could be
From the book “The
Other Side of Color” by David C. Driskell
“Precious Memories,” 1984, collage and
“Honor thy Father and Mother,” 1983, collage
by Varnette P. Honeywood from the African
American Art Collection of Camille O. and
William H. Cosby Jr.
purchased in the bookstore, posters promoting key events, college holiday cards,
etc. Her artwork featured Black women
prominently in various scenes of Black
life, rooted in African tradition and thought
and in abstract form. The images were
fresh to me. As a junior, I came to love
“She Who Learns Teaches,” which I once
owned in poster form. I later bought a set
of notecards bearing the same image and
proverb. I came to see Varnette Honeywood’s artwork as definitively Spelman –
the two were inextricably tied.
As an alumna, Honeywood was a powerful symbol of the value of a Spelman
education. Her artwork reinforced the
reality that Spelman was built just for
1984 “Spelman the
Spirit of Success”
admission
materials
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
1987 Invitation features
“Hearts Make Friends”
collage to Traditions: She
Who Learns Teaches
exhibition
2011 Tribute Painting by
Calida Garcia Rawles, C’98
for Los Angeles Spelman
Alumnae Chapter of NAASC
me; it put Black women at the center of
life, while Spelman put young Black
women at the center of the academic experience. How could it not be my numberone choice for college?
Varnette Honeywood: Heart
TaRessa Stovall
Author/ blogger
Former Spelman College Public
Relations Director
I loved Varnette Honeywood even before
I came to Spelman as director of public
relations and special events in 1987. I
had discovered her work a few years earlier in my hometown of Seattle, and
since I hadn’t been able to find a print, I
bought a packet of cards when I first
moved to Atlanta and had those cards
framed to hang in my apartment.
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2 0 1 1
Discovering that Varnette was not only
a Spelman Woman, but had created the
sumptuous admissions materials with
which I would be working in my new
position was like winning a creative lottery. I took it as an auspicious sign that I
was “meant to be” at Spelman, this incredible community of brilliant, gifted women
who freely shared their talents with the
Spelman family and the world.
When Lev T. Mills, chair of the art
department, organized an exhibit of Varnette’s works at the College, it was my
privilege to interview – and thus get to
know – the artist whose voluptuous,
vibrant works seemed to pulse with the
rhythms and truths of the most colorful
aspects of Black family and community
life. The collage “Hearts Make Friends”
used for the postcard/invitation to this
exhibition reflected her joyful spirit.
There could not have been a more perfect marriage of images or brands.
Varnette created many iconic works for
Spelman – each more perfect than the
last. Varnette was every bit as lovely as her
creations. She had a heart that just con-
nected directly to yours as soon as she
smiled, with a voice as rich and smooth as
honey, and a laugh like a hug to the soul.
Varnette Honeywood: Inspiration
Calida Garcia Rawles, C’98
Artist and author of Same Difference
I can’t quantify the magnitude of Varnette
Honeywood’s influence on my artistic
style and my experience as a Black woman
artist. As I painted the tribute piece for
the Los Angeles Spelman Alumnae Chapter Varnette Honeywood Art Scholarship,
I relied on Honeywood’s past work for
inspiration, specifically the ways in which
she breaks down her subjects to their simplest forms while maintaining the spirit of
the people she paints. Her work is not
only visually beautiful, but it also captures
a sense of pride in the African American
experience and the diversity within our
culture. I am honored to follow in the
footsteps of this legend. Thank you, Ms.
Honeywood.
9
“The Caregiver” for Bearing Witness
opening exhibition for the Spelman
College Museum of Fine Art
Senior photo in Reflections
1972 Yearbook
Varnette Honeywood:
Generous Spirit
M. Akua McDaniel, C’69
Associate Professor/ Chair of
Department of Art
Interim director (1995) of Spelman
College Museum of Fine Art.
Varnette Honeywood and I first met at
the National Conference of Artists in the
late 1970s. Her warm personality and
infectious laugh made it easy to like her,
but it was Varnette’s passion for making
beautifully rendered, heartfelt images of
Black life that made her an extraordinary
person. In 1995, when I became the
interim director of the Spelman College
Museum of Fine Art, Varnette was at the
top of our list of invited artists who we
hoped would participate in our first major
exhibition. Since her student days at Spelman, Varnette had become tremendously
popular both through her artwork and her
affiliation with “The Cosby Show.”
Therefore, we were delighted when she
accepted our invitation.
When the crate containing her art
arrived, I was struck by the intricate details
in one of Varnette’s mixed-media images
and captured by its universal content.
“The Caregiver,” a collage emblematic of
her personal life, depicts a young Black
woman standing behind a table filled
with bottles of pills and medical supplies.
An open Bible lies near the center of
these assorted remedies and a framed
10
cross-stitched sampler bearing the words
“Prayer Is the Answer” can be seen on the
wall behind the central figure. From each
side of the table, a hand stretches forth.
These three hands may have represented
her parents and her sister Stephanie,
family members for whom she provided
care during their illnesses and their transitions. But this artwork was not just an
illustration of Varnette’s unwavering support of her own family; she was also
reaching out to millions of Black women
who find themselves in similar circumstances, reassuring them that they are not
alone.
In the late 1990s, Varnette gave the
Museum and the department of art her
cards and posters to sell with the understanding that all of the proceeds were to
be used to support students majoring in
art. As a result, the department was able
to establish the Varnette Honeywood
Student Travel Grant, which helps to
subsidize conference travel, special projects, research and exhibitions. She also
funded the art department’s first newsletter and actively encouraged high school
students who were interested in the visual
arts to apply to Spelman College. The
impact of Varnette’s generosity on the
department of art can never be fully measured, but her legacy will, I hope, inspire
our students to realize their own potential
for excellence in the visual arts and discover the rewards of giving to others.
Varnette Honeywood:
Artist-in-Residence
Charnelle Holloway, C’79
Spelman College Associate Professor of Art
Varnette Honeywood spent a semester
with the department of art as Artist-inResidence during the 1990s. Her presence was a wonderful addition to the
vitality of the department, as she was
very open and interactive with students
and others that visited her campus workspace. Her warm smile and sense of humor
made students very comfortable in her
presence. Our young artists were exposed
to Varnette’s monoprint techniques, her
professional issues pertaining to art and
business, her “no-nonsense” work ethic
and a patient ear that listened to individual questions and concerns of students
pursuing careers in the creative arts.
The College commissioned several
projects from Varnette while she worked
as Artist-in-Residence, and as a result, the
students were able to witness her creative
process from the idea to the finished
product. She occasionally joked about the
amount of commission work that she was
requested to do for the College, saying
that she would have to wait until her
Artist-in-Residence position had ended to
get any of her own work done. Kind and
generous with a wonderful spirit, Varnette
was a very valuable resource for our students and faculty, and I felt that she
always kept Spelman close to her heart.
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
PHOTO: BUD SMITH
1992 Artist-in-Residence
Varnette Honeywood: Ambassador
Lev. T. Mills
Spelman College Professor of
Art Emeritus
During the 14 years that I served as chair
of the department of art, I had the good
fortune to connect with Varnette Honeywood in ways that were more than just
sharing mutual respect as practicing artists.
Our friendship continued to grow as we
worked on important departmental projects. Varnette was invited to serve for a
semester as Artist-in-Residence. Later, a
very impressive retrospective of her works
was curated by Dr. Jontyle Robinson.
Whenever Spelman was mentioned in
Varnette’s presence, her face lit up! The
thing that one noticed very quickly was
that she had a special love for the College
and the department of art.
She continually supported the department by being active in it, offering advice
and recruiting students in the California
area; she was also a generous donor to
fundraising projects. In addition, there
were times when she would allow proceeds from her commercial reproductions
to be donated to the department of art. It
is difficult to believe that Varnette Honeywood, one of the department’s greatest
ambassadors, will be “missing in action.”
There is much to be admired about
Honeywood’s art and her warm-hearted
spirit. She accomplished so much during
her short lifetime. Her stylistic human
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
forms were trademarks, and her unique
ways of humorously depicting African
American lifestyles were appealing. Her
art continues to offer “teaching moments.”
Her works are attractive to students and
to many art patrons, including knowledgeable art collectors, as well as to those
who can relate to art because it brings joy
to their hearts. Many African Americans
have said her works make them feel good
about themselves. We will cherish the artistic gifts that Varnette Honeywood has left
for the masses to remember and admire.
Varnette Honeywood: A Portrait of
Unconditional Love
Eloise Alexis, C’86
Spelman College Vice President for
College Relations
Spelman frequently called upon Varnette
Honeywood to tell its story in images.
Every time, she responded with enthusiasm, talent and generosity.
On the occasion of the College’s 125th
anniversary, when we needed someone
who could capture the visual essence of
Spelman during those125 years, I never
considered anyone other than Varnette.
She had proven through the years that
she was the one to turn to. And, true to
form, Varnette never paused to consider
saying no, despite the personal and professional opportunities and challenges
she faced. So we proceeded, and the
imaginative mind of Jo Moore Stewart
and the creative talent of Varnette Honeywood kicked into gear. From Atlanta,
Jo began shaping the 125th anniversary
program, while in Los Angeles, Varnette
translated words into images. There were
days when we would call her only to find
out that she was creating Spelman’s 125th
anniversary visual in the hospital at her
mother’s bedside. Varnette was undaunted,
through toil and pain. “The River That
Flows Through Time” – the theme and
the visual – came to be, capturing the
legacy of Spelman’s first 125 years, and
inspiring us to ensure the College’s empowering mission and vision for the next century.
One of the last contributions Varnette
made to Spelman was in response to a
call from Spelman for alumnae to help
meet the Founders Day Challenge to
reach 5,000 donors for the fiscal year by
April 11, 2010. I can only imagine how
she might have been feeling, with what
she might have been dealing, but Spelman called and, as always, Varnette
Honeywood answered. For me, the portrait she painted with her life was as
beautiful, significant and eternal as the
physical works she has left for us.
11
PHOTO: BUD SMITH
PHOTO: BOBBY HOLLAND
Varnette Honeywood, C’72 and A. Michelle Smith, C69, pose
with painting at the 1990 opening ceremony of the National
Black Arts Festival .
LaKeeta Howard, C’79 with mentor Varnette P. Honeywood, C’72
Remembering Varnette: My Mentor,
My Friend
La Keeta Howard, C’79
Artist
Before the iconic paintings, “Dixie
Peach” and “African Women” and before
the national TV exposure, I – at five –
met 12-year-old “Bop,” as Varnette was
affectionately called. I promptly noticed
that Varnette liked to draw and paint
and that she created images that looked
like us. This was significant in 1962 when
there were few images of “us” in mainstream media.
After my family and I moved down
the street from Varnette and her family,
Varnette became my babysitter, my big
sister, my earliest influence in devoloping
my talent, my mentor. She had a warm and
artistic family. Her mom, Lovie Honeywood, had a potter’s wheel and did ceramics,
as well as designing clothes. Her older
sister, Stephanie, also expressed herself
through drawing, painting and poetry.
Her dad, Stepney, expressed his talent
through cooking and gardening.
In 1968, Varnette and her talent went
to Atlanta where she attended Spelman
College. Her initial major was history;
however, Joe Ross, a drawing teacher,
observed her work and convinced her to
change her major to art. Her exposure to
the arts while at Spelman ignited a spark
and a quest for art that she explored her
entire life. Again, she was my mentor
12
because I too enrolled at Spelman and
majored in art.
This experience was repeated as Varnette demonstrated that you could have
a career as an artist and make a living. I
watched her paint and sell to admirers of
her work. This encouraged me to create
and sell my work.
It was a gift to have her as a mentor, a
friend and a big sister. Now with her transition, it is important that I pass on to
others the gift of her talent.
Varnette Honeywood: Visionary
A. Michelle Smith, C’69
Founding Executive Director
National Black Arts Festival
As we planned for the second National
Black Arts Festival in 1990, it was important that the visual arts continued to be
both a highlight and a vehicle for promoting the festival and introducing festival
patrons to a variety of artists and their
work. The commissioned festival poster
was the centerpiece of our marketing
efforts, and we wanted an established fine
artist whose work had broad appeal and
reflected the vibrancy and pioneer spirit of
the festival. Elizabeth Catlett had been
commissioned to produce the inaugural
limited edition festival print and as we
searched for someone to continue that tradition, there was little doubt that Varnette
Honeywood should be that artist. Her
“Generations of Creative Genius”
work was colorful, contemporary and
beautifully reflective of the African American experience. She didn’t simply paint a
picture; her work told a joyful story that
incorporated complex designs, patterns
and familiar images that reflected our
African traditions. We were thrilled when
Varnette agreed to create a limited edition
print that could also be produced as a festival poster. She understood perfectly what
the festival was all about and was a joy to
work with. We were blown away when
we received the spectacular final product.
Called “Generations of Creative Genius,”
the print shows two female and two male
images depicting dance, literature, visual
art and music, set against a background of
blue and white tapestry designs. It was
wildly popular and remains one of the
most popular posters in NBAF history.
Varnette’s “Generations of Creative Genius”
touched people of all generations and
backgrounds, including the Rockefeller
Foundation that used the image as their
1990 annual report cover, a testament to
the power of Varnette Honeywood’s creative spirit.
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
Varnette Honeywood: Dream Maker
Tina McElroy Ansa, C’71
Author/Publisher
Varnette Honeywood: Teacher
Tanya Coleman, C’72
Marketing Advertising Manager
Publix Super Markets
Atlanta Division
Varnette was born with two gifts. I met
Varnette when she came to Spelman to
learn how to develop her gifts and to grow
into the woman who would embrace life,
love learning and excel at teaching.
History will document Varnette’s life
as an artist. I will always remember her as
a teacher. After college, Varnette and her
sister, Stephanie, built a business, Black
Lifestyles, which made art available to
the greater community. Stephanie, an
outstanding writer of poems and short
stories, dedicated her life to helping her
baby sister share with the world the
vibrant, colorful images depicting African
American life in all its riches – children
at school, families at church, mothers
combing hair, fathers working hard,
friends sharing special moments.
The images sold by Black Lifestyles
came in many forms, making them available to a diverse audience. Original
paintings and collages for the seasoned
collector, silk screens, serigraphs and
monoprints for the informed and newer
collectors, and signed reproductions and
posters for the developing collectors were
all available through Black Lifestyles.
Each art transaction invited a conversation with the artist. So it’s no surprise
that when I purchased my first piece of
original art from my Spelman classmate,
the transaction opened the door to an
expanded world of friendship, art education and entrepreneurship.
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
“clothe” my first novel, my baby, in one
of her beautiful “outfits,” was, “I read the
manuscript. I love it! Let’s get to work.”
Can you imagine how my heart took
flight? By phone from her home on the
West Coast to my home on the East
Coast, she didn’t ask anything but what
was my choice of medium. “A collage!” I
replied, with my heart beating at this collaborative dream come true. “Okay,” she
said. Then, a bit later, she called to
inquire what I thought of a family portrait of the book’s characters. “Yes!” I
screamed. I could barely contain my joy.
When I think of Varnette – and that is
every day because my home is blessed to
be graced with her beautiful, richly
meaningful works – I see the
palette of dazzling intense colors
that defined her. I recall the first
time I saw her, seeming to float
across Spelman’s campus headed
for the Trevor Arnett Arts Building.
She was swathed in vibrant multihued fabric from the crown of her
head wrap to the hem of her flowing caftan. She looked like no one
else around me in the late 1960s.
And that was because she was and
continued to be unique.
Tina McElroy Ansa, C’71 and Varnette Honeywood,
I asked around and discovered C’72 at 2005 Women of Color LEADS conference.
that this Spelman sister was an artist,
a very advanced one. And when I saw
This established artist turned this
some of her work, I knew right then that fledgling novelist’s dream into a reality. It
when I published my first novel, I wanted was so like Varnette: generous, kind,
a Varnette P. Honeywood image to grace thoughtful, loving yet professional and
the cover.
respectful of the art.
For years, I dreamed of it, of course.
She not only created a beautiful origiBut I don’t know if I truly believed that nal work of art for my first novel. She
this dream collaboration could come made me her collaborator, asking me the
true – that the first artist that I admired exact shade of the mother’s red hair, the
in college, Spelman Class of ’72, would exact coloring of the father’s skin. She
actually create art for me, Spelman Class even enlisted her lovely mother’s help in
of ’71, on the book jackets of my novels. hunting down just the right red and
Dreams are like that: too far-fetched to be green plaid material to create the main
tangible, yet too perfect to be abandoned. character’s little dress.
Now that I think about it, I suppose
Varnette did this for each of my subseVarnette, with her palette of vivid soulful quent four novels, as she continued
colors in everything from her dress to her making my dreams come true. And in the
art to her choice in flowers, was a dream process of her offering me an immense
maker. She specialized in creating dreams generosity of spirit and time and talent
and memories of African American life and love, we became more than collaboon the canvas and in making dreams rators. We became friends.
come true in real life.
My sister Varnette was and will always
That’s what she did for me.
be my beautiful dream maker.
In 1989, her reaction to my request to
13
PHOTO: BUD SMITH
Varnette used Black Lifestyles not only
as a company to distribute and sell art,
but also as a forum to mentor emerging
artists, educate collectors and encourage
the incorporation of art into everyday life.
WART
: JO MOORE STE
POSTER DESIGN
Jackie’s Song
14
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
CARD DESIGN: JO MOORE STEWART
CARD DESIGN: JO MOORE STEWART
Campus Christmas (1984)
Christmas Carol Concert (1983)
Varnette Honeywood: A Treasure
Donald & Isabel Stewart
Spelman College President 1976–1986
Varnette’s wonderful figures representing
Spelman women captured much of the
essence and feel of the college as we knew
it in the 80s: distinctive and unique, feisty
and colorful, positive and full of life. All
of the same can be said of Varnette Honeywood, the person and artist whom we
admired so much.
Beginning in 1983, she created our
holiday card and event poster that captured the spirit of the Spelman Morehouse
Christmas Carol Concert.
Our 1984 three-panel card titled
“Campus Christmas” gave Spelman an
opportunity to present Varnette’s design
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
genius to a much broader audience. In
fact, her card for Spelman won the CASE
Bronze Award for Illustration in print.
When Bill Cosby received his honorary
degree from Spelman, this was the card
that made him aware that Varnette was a
Spelman graduate. In turn, Spelman
became “Hillman,” the focus for his hit
show, “A Different World.” In a lovely
aside, Cosby featured Varnette as part of
the walk-on cast in the Hillman presidential transition episode that launched
“A Different World” (for which all of
Atlanta turned out!) – and as they say,
the rest is history.
As executive director of Girls Inc. in
NYC, Isabel commissioned a Honeywood
work that would convey that organization’s
intention to encourage the development of
“strong, smart and bold” girls. Her work
depicts some of the many career paths that
were opening up to girls in the 80s, again
underscoring visually her belief in the
power of girls and young women to create
new horizons for themselves.
Today, here in our home in Chicago,
one of our proudest treasures is “Go Back
and Fetch It,” a Honeywood collage given
to us upon our departure from Spelman
by the Board of Trustees. We hope that
someday it will grace the home of one of
our two “strong, smart and bold” granddaughters. Is there a Spelman “descriptor”
that can replace “strong, smart and bold”
with more meaning for Spelmanites?
Varnette herself was a treasure.
15
Varnette P. Honeywood: Legacy
A Life Well-lived – A talent well-shared
Remarks – Funeral Services for
Varnette P. Honeywood, C’72 Friday,
September 24, 2010
I am Beverly Daniel Tatum, and I humbly
greet you in my role as president of Spelman College, where for 129 years we
have educated women who change the
world. Women like Varnette Patricia
Honeywood, Class of 1972.
I join the family, friends and all assembled here as we fondly reflect on
Varnette’s life and legacy.
It is documented that Varnette was a
history major at Spelman before an art
professor saw her talent and potential,
and gave her a “long talk.” As a result,
Varnette would go on to major in, and
graduate with a degree in art from Spelman College. Although Varnette returned
to her hometown of Los Angeles to study
and pursue her profession, she remained
connected to her alma mater, giving
unconditionally of her time and talent
on behalf of Spelman for nearly 40 years.
Inaugural Gala 1988 watercolor
When I joined the Spelman College family in 1987, I had never met Varnette
Honeywood, but I knew of her as an
accomplished visual artist whose vibrant
works about African American life tickled my heart and made me smile. With
great anticipation I waited for my chance
to meet and spend some time with Varnette, an alumna whose personality as
well as her art was loved by her Spelman
sisters. When that opportunity came,
there was something magical about being
with Varnette and that same magic was
there each and every time we were together.
Our sister Varnette graciously and
generously responded to the call to play a
prominent role in the life of Spelman
throughout the decade of my presidency.
It was her watercolor that captured the
celebratory spirit around my inauguration. And during the Cole years of
1987–1997, Varnette’s wonderful artistry
appeared in the college’s admission materials and on the covers of Spelman
Messengers and the annual report that
featured the opening of the Camille
16
PHOTO: BUD SMITH
Varnette Honeywood: Magic
Johnnetta Cole
Spelman College President 1987–1997
1988 Inauguration Varnette Honeywood with
President Johnnetta B. Cole
Olivia Hanks Cosby academic center in
1996. In 1992, Varnette spent time at
her alma mater as Artist-in-Residence.
Several months before she passed
away, I went to see Varnette in her Los
Angeles home. Surrounded by the art
work she was still producing, despite the
intense challenges of her illness, Varnette
was then and always will be Spelman’s
beloved sister artist.
Of her time:
Varnette returned to campus time and
time again – to share her artistic gift,
experiences and inspiration with Spelman students, faculty, staff and alumnae
during such activities as the Founders
Day career convocations or serving as
Artist-in-Residence. She would return to
campus for her class reunion, or an exhibition of her work (such as Traditions:
She Who Learns Teaches, in April and
May of 1987, and VH 4-Decades: The
Art of Varnette P Honeywood, in April
of 1992); or she would visit the campus
when in town for the National Black
Arts Festival.
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
Change. Means. Action.
The Campaign for Spelman College
SPRING 2011
Strong Networks Expand Impact
Every Woman, Every Year Contributes Time and Talent
Alumnae Affairs Broadens
Student Mentoring Programs
The Office of Alumnae Affairs is expanding
its programming to support one of the
goals of College’s Strategic Plan for 2015,
fostering strong relationships between
alumnae and students. Their AlumnaeStudent Connections plan includes six areas
of focus: One-on-one and group mentoring,
shadowing, internships, panels, networking
socials, and co-curricular experiences.
Last March, the office piloted their
Student Connection, Mentoring and Support
program with a focus on connecting
students interested in legal careers with
alumnae who have experience with the law.
Both groups were excited about the
opportunities and the
benefits.
“Alumnae felt it
was a great way to give
back and the students
thought it was a great
way to enhance their
Spelman experience,”
said Sharon Owens,
director of the Office of
Alumnae Affairs.
Angela Glover,
C’93, who participated in the pilot program, agreed: “The law social provided
students with a chance to learn about all
aspects of career opportunities from
knowledgeable alumnae,” she said.
The program has since been expanded
to include three other disciplines, medicine,
financial services, and hospitality over 13
months. Twenty-five students are matched
with 25 alumnae in each discipline for
one-on-one interactions, as well as
collective sessions twice a semester that
focus on career-building topics such as
performance image and exposure, trend
analysis, networking and personal brand
development.
In addition, students are trained on
effective mentor relationships, and alumnae
provide shadowing opportunities for the
students to give them exposure to real-life
situations in their particular industries.
Students and alumnae share different
types of experiences while participating in
the Alumnae-Student Connection Excursions.
The partnership with the Spelman Student
Government Association and the Office of
Student Life & Engagement provides one
local outing in the fall and one national trip
in the spring.
The events have included excursions to
see productions of plays by Pearl Cleage,
C’71, and the Alvin Ailey
Dance Theater. In March,
50 students and alumnae
will travel to Washington,
D. C., to connect with
alumnae working on
Capitol Hill and in the
White House.
“The Spelman
experience is a cherished
one and many students
appreciate access to
alumnae,” said Breyon Dixon, C’2012, the
student coordinator for all of the
alumnae-student connection programs
produced by Alumnae Affairs.”While
observing the successful programs, I saw
students able to connect and seek
personal and professional advice from
alumnae they admired.”
For more information about participation
opportunities or supporting AlumnaeStudent Connections, please contact the
Office of Alumnae Affairs at (404) 270-5048.
Walmart Sponsors Leadership
Development in First
Generation Scholars
The Walmart Leadership Scholars Program
is designed to develop the leadership
qualities and skills of first generation college students to support their successful
matriculation at Spelman. The goal of the
program, supported financially by Walmart
and launched in the spring of 2010 by the
Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement
at Spelman College, is to create the family
legacy of a college graduate.
Alumnae have been active participants
in the initiative’s speaker series, which
features storytelling from first generation
Action By the Goals
G lobal engagement
Twenty Spelman students traveled to
Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December
as part of the Student Affairs Global
Experience.
O pportunities for internships
Nearly 50 companies participated in
the Spring Career Fair at Spelman
College.
A lumnae connections
The College’s Alumnae-Student
Connections program expanded to
include medicine, financial services,
and hospitality.
L eadership development
Senior Sandra Erin Jones won the
2011 Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced
Studies in science.
S ervice learning
The College launched Project Impact,
a student-focused service initiative to
revitalize the community outside
Spelman’s gates.
Dr. Nicole LaBeach, C'93, addresses students.
professionals or those who have worked
with first-time college students. Rosalind
Brewer, C'84, Spelman trustee, executive
vice president, Walmart U.S., and president,
Walmart Stores South, and Dr. Nicole
LaBeach, C'93, were asked by LEADS,
which makes an effort to recruit alumnae,
to address the 60 students who are
involved annually in the program.
“As a Spelman grad, it has always been
impressed upon me to help those that are
coming behind you navigate where they
are going in their careers,” said Dr.
LaBeach, an executive coach who spoke to
the scholars about positioning themselves
for greatness, making good decisions, and
not being paralyzed by fear. “The students
were very receptive and inquisitive about
their next moves and how my experience
was going to help them progress to their
next steps.”
Participant Bathsheba Richards, C’2011,
is appreciative of the guidance she received
from the speakers about networking, time
management, and balancing academics
with extracurricular activities. “I have
learned about communicating better,
branding myself, and the importance of
maintaining a positive self-image,” said
Richards.
Trustee Shares Experience
with Scholars
Spelman board of trustees member, Vicki
Palmer is committed to helping students
with academic promise, a commitment to
community service, and a demonstrated
financial need. Through a scholarship in
her name, the first five Vicki Palmer
Scholars are reaping mentorship benefits
in a unique program established in honor
of Palmer, the former executive vice
president of financial services and
administration at Coca-Cola Enterprises
and a 16-year member of Spelman’s board
of trustees.
The Vicki R. Palmer Scholarship
Program mirrors its namesake’s longtime
commitment to helping Coca-Cola’s
diversity and inclusion goals of recruiting,
retaining and promoting minorities and
women. Designated for all eligible students
with academic promise, a commitment to
community service, and a demonstrated
financial need, the program provides
students with a paid professional internship
experience at Coca-Cola Enterprises. The
scholars receive an annual scholarship
award of $5,000 after the successful
completion of their internship.
Before the internship started last
summer, Palmer set high expectations for
the students and
she remained
hands on, assisting
them throughout
their experience. “I
told them ‘You are
my babies and the
bar is high, and I
expect all of you to
exceed the bar.’
They promised me
they would not let
Spelman Trustee
me down and they
Vicki Palmer
didn’t,” said
Palmer, who accompanied the scholars to
their formal internship orientation with 95
other Coca-Cola interns. She also helped
each with their capstone presentations,
even calling in her former employees to
provide the scholars with feedback.
The guidance the students received
from Palmer during the program fostered a
special connection between her and the
scholars, who interned in several
departments, including Enterprise Project
Management and Corporate Responsibility
and Sustainability. “Having Mrs. Palmer as
a mentor is completely invaluable,” said
Lauren Brown Jarvis, C’2011. “She really
invested time in our progress and provided
us with information to help us be successful
professionally and academically.”
Coca-Cola Supports
Intergenerational Leadership
To ensure that Spelman students have
exposure to a broad spectrum of
leadership models, Spelman and The
2
Coca-Cola Foundation
developed the
Coca-Cola/Spelman
Intergenerational
Leadership Mentoring
Program. Since the
program’s inception
in the spring of 2008,
79 students have
benefitted from
mentoring
relationships with
individuals who are
Ashley Gilbert,
leading change in the
work force and have
C'2013, and mentor
demonstrated their
Daryll H. Griffin
abilities to develop
others.
Through the program, funded by The
Coca-Cola Foundation, mentees learn how
to effectively manage roadblocks and
develop decision-making skills that
accelerate their personal, professional,
and community service endeavors.
“My mentor aids me in developing
valuable leadership and professional
skills by pushing me past my comfort
zone, for example speaking in public and
conducting informational interviews,” said
Jasmine West, C’2012.
To enhance the skills the students are
developing to become global leaders who
excel in diverse environments, a
shadowing component has recently been
added to the program. Students spend a
day with their mentor in their professional
environment interacting and asking
questions of their mentor’s colleagues
and participating in work functions like
meetings and conference calls.
“This experience helps students learn
what they need to be prepared. Seeing
what their mentor does day-to-day gives
them real exposure to the many different
elements of the workplace, whether
they’re seeing professionals work outside
of a 9-to-5 or from a remote location,”
explained Jane Smith, Ph.D., C’68,
executive director of the Center for
Leadership and Civic Engagement. “They
get to ask questions of professionals, even
about appropriate attire. Four-inch heels
may not work if your position takes you to a
manufacturing plant regularly. Such
exposure encourages students to think
about the cultures in which they really
want to work. It allows them to make
decisions about their work life.”
Leads the Way
As the premier historically Black liberal
arts college for women, Spelman College
has a long history of producing graduates
at the forefront of the arts, child
advocacy, finance, law, medicine, public
service, science and many other fields.
The College’s legacy of leadership is
being strengthened by its dedication to
focusing on sustainability, expanding
women’s studies, and celebrating works
of art by women of African descent.
Spelman’s Namesake Building
Gets 21st Century Makeover
Keeping in line with the College’s
environmental efforts, the transformation of
Laura Spelman Hall into a state-of-the-art
residence hall will qualify the new structure
for a LEED Silver certified rating — the
leading national sustainability standard.
The project, , supports one of the priorities
of the Campaign for Spelman College — to
improve living and learning environments
for the College’s millennial students.
The cost of the renovations, including
improved dormitory areas for 40
upper-class students and Spelman’s first
ever 24-hour study
center, is $9.9 million.
The College has
secured $7 million in
funding, including
several generous gifts
made by leadership
contributors like The
Joseph B. Whitehead
Foundation.
“We hope that the
campus improvements
will enable Spelman to
continue to attract, retain and graduate
bright, ambitious young women from all
over the country,” said P. Russell Hardin,
the foundation’s president.
Named after the wife of John D.
Rockefeller, Laura Spelman Rockefeller
Memorial Building for Home Economics
opened on campus in 1918 and originally
housed the home economics department.
The structure has undergone only minor
renovations in its lifetime.
The latest update of this historic living
and learning environment will include a
new 24-hour dedicated study space with
modern amenities such as
state-of-the-art computer workstations,
individual study group areas, an exercise
facility, and ethernet/Wi-Fi access.
Improvements to the living spaces include
modern furnishings, ethernet/Wi-Fi
access, cable television central air, full
kitchens, shared bathrooms, lounge
areas, anda fully equipped laundry room.
Construction is expected to take 15
months with plans to open the new Laura
Spelman for the 2012-2013 academic year.
Naming opportunities at the $10,000 level
and above are being offered and include
the grand foyer, study areas, exercise
facility, computer labs lounge areas, and
wireless outdoor commons.
The Spelman College Museum
of Fine Art Launches the
15 x 15 Acquisitions Initiative
The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art
celebrates its 15th anniversary in October
2011. To honor the occasion, the Museum
is launching 15 x 15, an initiative to acquire
15 works of art by 15 different artists. The
10 at 10 Supports $1 Million
Ford Match for Women’s Center
The success of the 10 at 10 initiative is
helping move the Spelman College Women’s
Research and
Resource Center
toward its goal of
meeting a $1
million challenge
grant awarded by
the Ford
Foundation in
2008. Initially
intended to
interest 10
alumnae in the
Celeste Watkins-Hayes,
C'96
class of 1996 to
contribute $10,000 each to the Women’s
Center, the initiative — spearheaded by
Spelman trustee and Women’s Center
National Advisory Board member Celeste
Watkins-Hayes, Ph.D., C’96 — has now
garnered support from 14 alumnae totaling
$140,000 and bringing the total amount
raised for the match to $430,000.
"Founded and run by Beverly
Guy-Sheftall, Ph.D., C’66, the Women’s
Center is a vital site for women’s studies
and advocacy projects, archival collections
of Black feminist scholar-activists, digital
media, and student activist leadership
development," said Watkins-Hayes. "We
hope to reach at least 20 donors by our May
2011 reunion.”
3
Chameleon by IngridMwangiRobertHutter
infusion of new works will ensure the
steady growth of the College’s permanent
collection, and elevate the only museum in
the nation dedicated to exhibiting works by
and about women of the African Diaspora.
“Every effort will be made to acquire
works by an array of emerging, mid-career,
and established artists that have been
featured in exhibitions that the museum
has originated,” explained Andrea Barnwell
Brownlee, director of the museum.
Four works have already been acquired
by the museum with support from donors
— including Spelman trustee Vicki Palmer
and her husband John — in honor of the 15
x 15 acquisitions initiative. The artists
include Nandipha Mntambo, Renée Cox
and IngridMwangiRobertHutter.
A public launch of 15 x 15 will take place
on April 20, 2011, and features a
conversation with Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims
and Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, renowned
art historians, art administrators, and
curators of The Global Africa Project.
For more information about supporting
Laura Spelman, the Women’s Research
and Resource Center, and 15 x 15, please
contact the Office of Development at (866)
512-1690.
Giving Opportunities: The Founders Day Challenge
To celebrate our 130th anniversary, Spelman College is inviting 6,000 alumnae to
participate in the Founders Day Challenge. Estimated gifts by invitees in this
Goal by Priority
Goal: $150 Million
Total Raised: $96 Million
year’s challenge will put Spelman within reach of a 50 percent alumnae
participation rate — a significant milestone among the nation’s women’s
colleges that will help leverage major gifts to Spelman. To amplify that effect,
an anonymous donor will contribute $250,000 to the College when we meet our
donor goal by the deadline, Founders Day, April 11, 2011.
Be a part of this year’s Founders Day Challenge, which will significantly
multiply the value of your gift. Become one of the Spelman 6,000 today.
To contribute, call (866) 512-1690 or visit http://www.spelman.edu and
Scholarships
$80 Million (53%) - Total Raised: $36 Million
select “Make Your Annual Fund Gift Now.”
Faculty and Academic Programs
$40 Million (27%) - Total Raised: $34 Million
130 Years. Means. Action.
Campus Environment
$10 Million (7%) - Total Raised: $9 Million
Every woman… Every year!
Annual Fund
$20 Million (13%) - Total Raised: $17 Million
Data as of February 28, 2011
The Campaign for Spelman College Donor List
Spelman College gratefully acknowledges the
following contributors for providing a solid
foundation of support for The Campaign for
Spelman College.
$20,000,000 and above
Ronda E. Stryker and William Johnston
$5,000,000—$9,999,999
Theodore and Barbara Aronson
Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation
United Negro College Fund, Inc./UNCF Special
Programs Corporation
$1,000,000—$4,999,999
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Anonymous
Bank of New York Mellon
Catholic Healthcare West
Jerri L. DeVard, C’79
Ford Foundation
Marjorie and Steve Harvey/Harvey Family
Foundation
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Lehman Brothers, Inc.
Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation, Inc.
New York Chapter, National Alumnae
Association of Spelman College
Paula Caruthers Renfro, C’74
The Coca-Cola Foundation/The Coca-Cola
Company/
Coca-Cola Refreshments
$500,000—$999,999
Anonymous
Arcus Foundation
Anne Cox Chambers
Delta Air Lines Foundation/ Delta Air Lines,
Inc.
Estate of Cherie Stawasz
ExxonMobil Foundation/ExxonMobil
Corporation
George Link, Jr. Foundation, Inc.
Pfizer Foundation/Pfizer, Inc.
Bradley Sheares and Adrienne Simmons
Southern Education Foundation, Inc.
Jon Stryker
The Riversville Foundation
$250,000—$499,999
AT&T Foundation/AT&T, Inc.
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.
Robert Holland, Jr. and Barbara Holland
John K. Hurley
JP Morgan Chase Foundation/JP Morgan
Chase
Yvonne R. Jackson, C’70
Lilly Endowment, Inc.
Morgan Stanley & Company
Beverly Daniel Tatum and Travis T. Tatum
The David Geffen Foundation
The Starr Foundation
Tull Charitable Foundation
United Parcel Service/UPS Foundation, Inc
Verizon Foundation/Verizon
Walmart Foundation/Walmart
George T. Wein
Xerox Corporation/Xerox Foundation
$100,000—$249,999
Abrams Foundation, Inc.
Anonymous (2)
Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Jacqueline A. Avant
BMW of North America, Inc.
Jean Beard
Bernard Osher Foundation
Boeing Company
Rosalind Gates Brewer, C’84
Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.
Cummins Foundation /Cummins, Inc.
Kimberly Browne Davis, C’81
Empire Office, Inc
Velda Givens Erie
Estate of Jennie Marshall
Estate of Ida Peterson, C’46
Federated Corporate Services, Inc.
General Motors
Georgia Power Company, Inc.
Goldman, Sachs & Company
Google, Inc.
Honeywell, Inc.
IBM International Foundation/IBM Corporation
Institute for Higher Education Policy
Rose Harris Johnson, C’57, and Robert Johnson
Merck Partnership for Giving
Merrill Lynch & Company Foundation,
Inc./Merrill Lynch
National Alumnae Association of Spelman
College
Gwendolyn and Peter Norton
Vicki R. Palmer
PepsiCo Foundation, Inc.
Publix Supermarkets
R. Howard Dobbs, Jr. Foundation, Inc.
SunTrust Bank Managed Foundations
Florence & Harry English Memorial Fund
Harriet McDaniel Marshall Trust
SunTrust Bank Atlanta Foundation
The Falcon Fund
The Hearst Foundation, Inc.
The Home Depot Foundation
The Isambard Kingdom Brunel Society of North
America
The Rich Foundation, Inc.
The Thomas J. Watson Foundation
Isabella McIntyre Tobin, C’45 (dec.)
UBS Financial Services, Inc./UBS Investment Bank
$50,000—$99,999
Eloise Abernathy Alexis, C’86
AGL Resources, Inc.
Anne Ashmore-Hudson, C’63
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Bank of America Foundation/Bank of America
Boehringer Ingelheim Cares Foundation, Inc.
Joy San Walker Brown, C’52
Bush Foundation
Cambridge Academic Group
Charles A. Frueauff Foundation, Inc.
Ruby Handspike Clay, C’54
Alice Gaston Combs,C’53, and Julius V. Combs
Pauline E. Drake, C’58
Electronic Arts, Inc.
Energy Systems Group
Estate of Maude Gaines
Fuller E. Callaway Foundation
Fund for Southern Communities
General Electric Company
Georgia-Pacific Foundation/Georgia-Pacific
Corporation
Marcelite Jordan Harris, C’64
Jack and Jill of America Foundation, Inc.
John and Rosemary Brown Family Foundation
LaTanya Richardson Jackson, C’74
Terry L. and Marcella Jones
Darnita R. Killian, C’79
Bernice A. King, C’85
Theodora Rochelle Lee, C’84
Limited Brands Foundation
Winnie & Henry Loftin Trust
Lorraine Thomas Trust
www.changemeansaction.com
Macy’s
Rick and Anna Mills
Joyce and David Price
Procter & Gamble
Prudential Financial/The Prudential
Foundation
Anne Roosevelt
Rosenthal & Company LLC
San Antonia Area Foundation
Jonathan Smith and Sherrill Blalock
The Community Foundation For Greater
Atlanta, Inc.
The Kendeda Fund
The Getty Foundation
The Henry Luce Foundation
Jesse and Cheryl Tyson
US Bank National Association
Alice M. Walker, C’65
Josie Latimer Williams, C’47 (dec.)
Wachovia Bank Managed Foundations
Atlanta Foundation
David, Helen & Marian Woodward
Foundation
Ida Alice Ryan Trust
Mary Allen Lindsey Branan Foundation
Thomas Pitts Fund
$25,000—$49,999
American Family Mutual Insurance Company
Annexstad Family Foundation
Claire Lewis “Yum” Arnold
Sandra Baccus
Ernestein Walker Baylor, C’49 (dec.)
J. Veronica Williams Biggins, C’68
Juel Pate Borders-Benson, C’54
Janine Brown
Carrie Buggs, C’56
A. Toy Caldwell-Colbert, C’73 (dec.)
Bonnie S. Carter, C’89
Janice Chappelle, C’65 (dec.)
Laura and Richard Chasin
Chick-Fil-A, Inc.
ConocoPhillips
Camille O. Cosby
William H. Cosby, Jr.
Angela Birch Cox, C’81
Mary Lynne Diggs, C’77
Lisa Egbuonu-Davis
Estate of Loyce Bynum
Estate of Charles Hicks
Estate of Dianne H. McDonald, C’33
Johnnie Hunter Foxworth, C’43
Frances Wood Wilson Foundation, Inc.
Jean McArthur Grant, C’53
Nina Echols Greenwood, C’85
June Gary Hopps, C’60
Edith Jackmon-Hunter, C’63
Cynthia E. Jackson, C’81
John Wieland Homes, Inc.
Ralph L. and Davida Johnson
Virginia Harris Johnson, C’58
Kassandra Kimbriel Jolley
Key Foundation
KeyBank Foundation/Key Bank
Kimberly Clark Corporation
Martin Luther King, III
Lockheed Martin Aeronautical System
Adrienne Lance Lucas, C’90
Traci Hartsfield McKie, C’89
Susan A. McLaughlin
Merchants National Properties, Inc.
Charles E. Merrill, Jr.
Microsoft Corporation
National Association for Equal Opportunity in
Higher Education
Northern New Jersey Chapter, NAASC
PGA of America
Willie Mae Pearson-Butler, C’49
Pitney Bowes, Inc.
Helen Smith Price, C’79
Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta
University Center
Lovette Twyman Russell, C’83
ScholarshipAmerica
Donna M. Stafford, C’86
David N. Sundwall
SunTrust Bank
Target Stores
Kathleen Mavis Tait, C’88
The Chrysler Foundation
The Teagle Foundation
Theobald Foundation
Kathy N. Waller
Celeste Watkins-Hayes, C’96
Valerie Rockefeller Wayne
Trojanell B. Wilson, C’74, and Brent Wilson
Yum! Brands Foundation
Giving levels reflect Campaign gift
commitments received during the period
July 1, 2004 through February 21, 2011
PHOTOS: JULIE YARBROUGH
Founders Day 2005 Varnette Honeywood with President
Beverly Daniel Tatum
Varnette also returned to Spelman to
receive some much deserved recognition,
including an Alumnae Achievement
Award in 2003 and the College’s highest
honor, the honorary degree, in 2005.
Of her talent:
Spelman has over 25 years of Varnette’s
vision of Spelman, as depicted in her art.
Someone once wrote: “What defines art?
Making the audience feel something and
think about the world in a new way,
from a different perspective, or a broad
view is what artistic endeavors are about.”
Varnette P. Honeywood, C’72, did
just that for Spelman. She made us feel
and think. She broadened our perspective
and our view.
Varnette’s Spelman work began with
the piece, “African Women,” which
served as the poster for the first conven-
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
Varnette P. Honeywood receives an honorary degree from Spelman College
in 2005
tion of the Spelman College Women’s
Resource & Research Center in 1982.
Her other Spelman works of art include:
Three College Christmas/Holiday cards,
the second of which won a coveted Council for the Advancement and Support of
Education (CASE) award for Spelman.
The artwork that adorned the cover of
Spelman’s Admissions materials in the
1980s
The literature for the inauguration of
Spelman’s seventh president (Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole)
Six covers of the College’s alumnae
magazine, the Messenger
Artwork for the groundbreaking and
the 1996 opening of the Camille Olivia
Hanks Cosby Academic Center at
Spelman College
The visual theme for the 125th Anniversary of Spelman College in 2006, “The
River That Flows Through Time.”
Varnette’s classmate and former Spelman
staff member, Tanya Coleman, C’72,
best described the vibrancy of Varnette’s
artwork when Tanya (as I understand
from Jo Moore Stewart, director of publications) reminded the staff that using
Varnette’s artwork in printed pieces
always required a 16-color job rather
than the traditional four-color process.
Indeed, Varnette P. Honeywood added
new and impactful colors to Spelman’s
palette and, as a result, captured the bright
vision of our past, present and future.
In turn, Varnette will live on through
the vivid illustrations of life, love and
legacy that her life well-lived and talent
well-shared leaves on the hearts and
minds of her Spelman sisters, the campus
community and the world.
17
Alumnae Keeping It Real
Spelman Women Bring Class
and Inspiration to Reality TV
BY TARESSA STOVALL
Kelly Smith Beaty, C’2002, had been in
love with “The Apprentice” reality TV
show hosted by real estate magnate, businessman and television personality
Donald Trump, since it debuted in 2004,
but she never dreamed she’d become a
contestant.
In March 2010, two weeks after she
lost her job, she learned of a casting call
for “The Apprentice” and joined other
hopefuls at the Marriot in Atlanta. “It was
really one of those ‘Oh, why not?’ on-awhim things,” she said. The tryouts this
year specified “regular people” who were
out of work, and they attracted a huge
turnout.
18
After surviving two rounds of casting
and submitting a 10-minute video about
her life, Kelly flew to Los Angeles for the
semifinals along with hundreds of others.
“About a week later, I got a call saying
they were flying me to New York to do the
show. It was a complete whirlwind – a
very happy couple of weeks. The first
time it all felt real is when the first boardroom piece was taped,” she said.
“I didn’t come in with a game plan or
strategy,” Kelly explained. “I didn’t want
to be the first to go home. I wanted to
play the game, do well and not embarrass
my mother.”
The difference between competing on
“The Apprentice” and competing in
business “is everybody is literally out to get
you. Being around that many hungry
sharks, it was important for me to figure
out exactly who I was up against.”
She held her own until she was “fired”
in the sixth week. Still, she views the experience as an unqualified success. “It was
never about money and it wasn’t even
about being on TV. It was truly the fact
that it was the one reality show I would
have actually done.”
The biggest surprise was when Donald
Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, approached
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
“The difference
between competing
on “The Apprentice”
and competing in
business “is everybody
is literally out to
get you.”
—KELLY SMITH BEATY, C’2002
Kelly Smith Beaty, C’2002
Kelly after she was cut. “She came to me
in the boardroom and said that she was
very impressed with the way that I’d carried myself, and that I should be proud of
my performance in the competition.
That was the greatest compliment I could
have been paid.”
Kelly learned a great deal from this
experience and has this advice to give:
Be yourself. Be assertive and your own
advocate but not bitchy or boastful.
Don’t expect friends to put you before
themselves.
Life is filled with semicolons, not periods. It’s never too late to start over.
Leadership is not about money or titles.
It’s about what you do.
When others laugh at you, you’re probably closest to your breakthrough.
Kelly recently accepted a position as
vice president of marketing and communications for Dress for Success Worldwide
in New York City.
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
While Kelly is the most recent alumna
to appear on reality TV, a strong sampling
of other Spelman women have graced
reality television with their presence,
including:
Autumn Lewis, C’2000, edged close
to the finish line in season seven of “Hell’s
Kitchen,” which aired in the summer of
2010. After making the cut, Autumn told
Fox News that she was both excited and
very nervous. “I’ve worked in kitchens
with screamers and yellers, but I think
[Chef Gordon Ramsay is] on a level of his
own.”
She and another contestant were cut
following a dinner service in which each
of the four remaining finalists took turns
running the kitchen. “I’m handing you
the reins of Hell’s Kitchen, and each and
every one of you is going to have to show
me what it’s like running it as your
kitchen,” Gordon told the contestants.
Now a personal chef in North Hollywood, California, Autumn found value
in the culinary competition. “I got stronger
and stronger and I never gave up,” she
told Reality TV World.
She also revealed her secret weapons
for great cooking: “You can’t go wrong
with some really good salt … and butter.
How could I forget butter?”
Bridget G. Bland, C’2004, and
Kelly Mitchell, C’2005, helped light up
“Harlem Heights,” a reality docu-drama
about a group of friends moving from
college into the working world to make it
big in New York City, which aired for a
single season in spring 2010.
Bridget, an English and women’s studies major at Spelman, juggles multiple
careers as an attorney, an entertainment
writer for AOL’s Black Voices, and an
independent social media manager for
several major corporations. A graduate of
Rutgers University Law School, she’s
lived in Harlem since 2004.
19
“I’ve worked in kitchens with
screamers and yellers, but I think
Chef Gordon Ramsay (far right)
is on a level of his own.”
—AUTUMN LEWIS, C’2000
Autumn Lewis, C’2000
Though she’s worked in entertainment – including as a producer/writer at
MTV – Bridget said she “never wanted to
be famous.” When one of the show’s creators asked her to join the cast, she agreed
because “I really enjoyed the idea that
this was a show that incorporated positive
images of African Americans, which you
don’t see a lot in reality TV series.” The
overall experience was fun, Bridget said.
“I had a really great year, hanging out
with my friends, with our lives being
taped everywhere we went for about eight
months.”
Kelly, C’05, an English major from
Somerset, New Jersey, was also recruited
by a friend who helped create “Harlem
Heights.” “They said they were looking
for someone who was somewhat of a
socialite, really focused on her work and
really fun,” she said. The overall experience differed from her expectations. “I
was reminded how little control you have
over your image. That was eye-opening.
It brings a lot of self-awareness because
you have to be yourself and be confident
in who you are since you can’t control
what happens in the editing process.”
20
Despite the producers’ attempts “to create conflicts and bickering,” Kelly found it
to be “a unique life experience, a story to
tell. It definitely altered some relationships
… it was … a little out of my comfort
zone, but I’m glad I had it and I wouldn’t
take it back,” she said.
Both Kelly and Bridget said that their
Spelman experience prepared them for
success in all of their endeavors, and gave
them the extra confidence to thrive on
“Harlem Heights.”
One of Spelman’s most televised alumnae, Keshia Knight Pulliam, C’2001,
has lent her star power to reality TV.
Shortly after graduation, the sociology
major joined several other TV child stars
on a celebrity version of “The Weakest
Link” game show, winning the competition and donating her $37,000 in winnings
to Spelman. She went on to win a celebrity
edition of “Fear Factor” in 2003, and took
part in “Celebrity Mole 2: Yucatan.”
Rolonda Watts, C’80, who has
enjoyed a successful, multi-faceted television career that includes dramatic and
comedic roles, voice-over work, an internationally syndicated hit talk show and
much more, was featured in Season Six of
Tyra Banks’s mega-popular “America’s
Next Top Model.”
A Spelman family was featured on the
BET reality series, Baldwin Hills, in
2007. Ashley E. Calloway, C’2012, and
her parents – actress Vanessa Bell Calloway and anesthesiologist and Morehouse
man Dr. Anthony Calloway – appeared
in the show about well-to-do African
American teens living south of Los Angeles from 2007 to 2009.
Spelman’s own college archivist and
historian, Taronda Spencer, C’80, was
also a contestant on “The Weakest Link.”
After several rounds of questions, the history major was invited to compete. She
taped the show in California in November 2001 and it aired in April 2002. “I
got to the elimination round, but lost,”
said Taronda. “It’s a winner-take-all contest. I answered my first question correctly,
[then] in the second round, I couldn’t
remember Beowulf,” Taronda said. “Doing
a game show is harder than it looks. It
was fun, but I don’t think I’d do it again.”
Spelman women have appeared on
other reality TV programming. Omelika
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
Reisha L. Raney, C’95, braved
the cameras to share her quest for
Mr. Right in the ABC five-part
documentary, “Hooking Up,”
Kuumba, C’81, who graduated from
Spelman as Avis Bynum, made it through
the first round of “America’s Got Talent”
in 2008, but elected not to continue the
competition because of a conflicting
opportunity, the long sought-after chance
to perform in the renowned annual Dance
Africa concert at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music (BAM) in New York. Omelika’s
Giwayen Mta (Elephant Women) Dance
Company was invited to audition for
“America’s Got Talent.” Jerry Springer
was the host and David Hasselhoff was a
judge. “We did traditional African dance
and drumming for the audition, and the
judges said they wondered how marketable that was in America,” she recalled.
“Jerry Springer was very encouraging and
said to be true to the culture. That changed
my opinion” of the TV shock jock, she
confided.
Helynn Stephens Nelson, C’2001,
credits an appearance on “Emeril Green on
Planet Green” on the Discovery Network
with boosting her culinary confidence. In
the July 14, 2008, episode, “A Winning
Combo,” famed chef Emeril Lagasse helps
Helynn, described in the online show
promo as “great at everything except cooking. Her husband, on the other hand, can
make a gourmet meal out of beans and
boudin. Helynn’s competitive nature
won’t allow her to settle for second place,
even in the kitchen.”
First, they taped a dinner party for six
of the couple’s friends, where Helynn
cooked, to less than enthusiastic responses.
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
Next, she met Emeril in the Whole Foods
store in Fairfax, Virginia. “We cooked a
meal together in the middle of Whole
Foods on an open set, so customers were
coming up and everything. At the end,
my husband came up and tried the meal
and gave it a thumbs-up.” The takeaway
is that Helynn is now “less intimidated in
the kitchen.”
Reisha L. Raney, C’95, braved the
cameras to share her quest for Mr. Right
in the ABC five-part documentary, “Hooking Up,” which aired in July, 2005. Reisha
was one of a dozen women featured in the
exploration of online dating. “I’d started
dating on Match.com because Ted Koppel said on “Nightline” that more singles
were meeting online.” The documentary
producers approached Reisha through
Match.com and selected her, though she
hadn’t yet been on a date.
Her motivation for taking part in the
documentary was more socially conscious
than romantic. “‘The Apprentice’ had
just done the first season and I felt that
Omorosa was exaggerating [characteristics] just to become a character at the
expense of Black women in general. When
ABC contacted me, I was like, ‘Why am I
going to put my dating life out in public?’
Then I thought, if I don’t do it, somebody else will and they might try to exploit
it like Omorosa and put another negative
image of us in the public. I went to Spelman; I felt an obligation to try my best to
put the best image possible of Black
women in the media.
Reisha, who earned a dual degree in
math from Spelman and mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and is
president and chief executive officer of the
Ency de Corporation in Fort Washington,
Maryland, was selected even though she
told the producers that while she was open
to dating men of different races offline, she
wouldn’t do so online.
The camera crew followed Reisha for
four or five months as she talked on the
phone and dated at least eight men,
including 10 dates with one guy. About
75 percent of the men she met online said
they’d like to get to know her after the
show was done filming. While she achieved
her goal of putting a positive image out
there, Reisha said she found it frustrating
that they boiled each participant down
into a character “by focusing on one
strand of your personality.”
Reisha is still happily single, but no
longer dating online.
When producers want sisters with
brains, substance, class and style to spare,
they know the power and value of the
Spelman brand and how beautifully it
translates to TV.
is the author of several
books including, My Blue Suede Shoes:
Four Novellas about healing from different
kinds of domestic violence, and part of the
Uppity News Network (www.Uppity
News.com). She lives in Montclair, New
Jersey, with her family.
TARESSA STOVALL
21
Alumnae Notes
22
Sister to Sister:
SPELMAN ALUMNAE…CELEBRATING 130 YEARS AND LEADING
F
or 130 years Spelman College has educated and nurtured generations of women
who go forth and change the world. Some
might ask how Spelman has sustained this
rich legacy. Perhaps, one need only look at the first
four lines of our Spelman Hymn to get the answer
to what motivates us:
Spelman thy name we praise
Standards and honor raise
We’ll ever faithful be
Throughout eternity
As alumnae, we are true blue; our love and passion for our alma mater is like none other. The
standards of excellence and honor raised in us as
Spelman students motivate achievement toward
new heights. We know the value of a Spelman
education and how it enriched our lives. And we
are loyal and faithful to protecting this legacy for
future generations of Spelman women.
Last year, we set a new standard when 39 percent
of our alumnae made a gift to the College. Two factors that motivated us to achieve such extraordinary
heights were: a $300,000 dollar matching gift from
an anonymous donor, and our determination to
protect our legacy by ensuring that we had the
resources to graduate another class of Spelman
women. In doing this, Spelman became a leader in
alumnae participation amongst historically Black
colleges and universities (HBCUs).
What’s next? Each of us must move forward and
continue elevating our alma mater. As we approach
the next milestone in Spelman’s history – 130 years
and leading, we realize that Spelman not only can
compete as a top HBCU, we must set the standard
and become a leader amongst all liberal arts and
women’s colleges. We are among the likes of Smith,
Mount Holyoke, Barnard, Agnes Scott and Scripps
College. To reach this milestone, we must set a new
goal of increasing alumnae participation to 50 percent by the end of the 150 million dollar campaign
in 2014. At 50 percent, we will have one of the
highest participation rate among all women’s colleges, not just HBCUs.
To help us reach our goal and in celebration of
our 130th birthday, we have set our 2011 goal at
42 percent, which equals a total of 6,000 donors.
We are currently at 1,277 alumnae donors and
need 4,723 more to make a gift to the college by
Founders Day, April 11, 2011. To amplify this
effect, an anonymous donor will contribute
$250,000 to the College when we achieve our
goal. This will significantly multiply the value of
your gift and move Spelman toward the 50 percent mark.
Spelman can only reach this goal when we as
alumnae get down in the trenches to make it happen. We only need to look to last year to see that
collective effort equals outstanding results! After
all we are dynamic, creative, talented women, who
always achieve our goal! Each alumna must find
her own way to engage her fellow sisters and give
back to Spelman. As the only student trustee to
return as a board trustee, Celeste Watkins Hayes,
C’96, was determined to raise the largest class gift
in celebration of her 15-year reunion. She challenged a circle of sisters within her class to join her
in becoming members of an elite group of donors
that pledge to give $10,000 to the Women’s Center
Ford Foundation matching gift. She affectionately
calls this group the “10 at 10.” Celeste demonstrated her passion for this cause by making the
leading $10,000 dollar commitment to Spelman
College, and now 13 of her sisters have followed
her example.
Cynthia Jackson, C’81, understands the need to
have each classmate step up and financially support
the campaign. She has challenged her classmates to
give according to their capacity. As class president,
Cynthia has a special relationship with her classmates, so she is making personal calls and visits to
each one of her sisters to solicit their gift. Currently
her class is leading in financial commitments.
So what is your strategy to help us achieve our
goal? What will you do to be faithful to Spelman?
Will you reach out to your Spelman sisters on
Facebook and Twitter? Are you willing to make
personal phone calls and visits to solicit gift? Or
perhaps you have another creative way to assist us
in reaching our goal. In honor of our 130th birthday, I encourage you to reach out to 30 of your
Spelman sisters and ask them to make a gift to the
College. If everyone will do her part, and I know
you will, we can achieve our goal of 6,000 donors
by Founders Day.
Happy 130th Birthday Spelman College! We as
alumnae will forever be faithful to do our part to
ensure that the future of Spelman College sustains
the next generation.
Sisterly,
Sharon Owens, C’76
Director of Alumnae
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
ALUMNAE NOTES
1935
Marguerite Simon
Personal: Celebrated her 98th
birthday on October 30, 2010.
1939
Dorothea Jackson
Professional: Honored at Georgia
Tech’s Women’s Leadership Conference in October 2010, as they
celebrated the 50th anniversary of
the matriculation of Black students,
for being one of the first Black
women to attend the college.
1941
Vivian Hunt Johnson
Personal: Celebrated her 90th
birthday on June 26, 2010 at a
luncheon hosted by her daughter.
1942
Georgia Dickens
Personal: Celebrated her 90th
birthday among Spelman sisters at
the home of Evelyn Chisolm, C’49,
in December 2010.
1943
Elizabeth G. King
Professional: Honored as a 2010
Athens Legacy Recipient for her
public service as an outstanding
educator and coach in Athens,
Georgia.
1958
Pauline E. Drake
Professional: Honored at a tribute
by the Pauline E. Drake Scholars
on November 12, 2010, at the
NASA Auditorium in the Science
Center, for her dedicated years of
service to the Pauline E. Drake
Scholars Program.
1964
Eleanor Hoytt
Professional: Hosted a blog radio
discussion about Black women’s
health and affordable health care in
September 2010.
Henrietta Turnquest
Professional/Personal: Featured in
the December 2010 edition of
People You Need to Know magazine
in the article, “Attorney Henrietta
Turnquest: Building a Lasting
Legacy.”
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
1968
Jane E. Smith
Professional: Honored with the
Trailblazer Award at the 100 Black
Women Metropolitan Atlanta
Chapter’s 14th annual “Unsung
Heroines” luncheon on August 17,
2010, at the Hyatt Regency
Atlanta.
1969
Laura English-Robinson
Professional: Performed a diverse
repertoire of classical music and
spirituals with Dr. Joyce Johnson
in Sisters Chapel on November 7,
2010. The performance was
presented by The Pro-Mozart
Society of Atlanta and the Atlanta
Music Club.
1970
Joyce Dorsey
Professional: Served as the keynote
speaker at My Girlfriends, Inc.’s
2nd Annual Women’s Empowerment Conference and Expo Propel
2010 on November 13, 2010, at the
Georgia International Convention
Center.
1973
Delores L. McCollum
Professional: Published the book
If Bible Stories Were Reported in
Today’s Headlines by RoseDog
Books in 2010.
1974
Deborah A. Robinson
Professional: Retired on June 15,
2010, from the Duval County
Public Schools in Jacksonville,
Florida, after 33 years of service as a
school guidance counselor. She
celebrated her retirement on
August 7 with more than 150
guests including 26 former students
ranging in age from 17 to 46.
1976
Marla Currie
Professional: Published The Urban
Shopper web magazine featuring
product reviews, consumer news,
profiles and resources.
Brenda Stanford
Professional: Received a
proclamation from the Atlanta City
Council in recognition of her
efforts towards November being
celebrated as National Epilepsy
Month.
1977
Geneva H. Baxter
Professional: Quoted in the article,
“College 101 for Freshmen,” in Jet
magazine, the August 30, 2010,
issue, highlighting the importance
of student study habits.
1980
Phyllis Anderson
Professional: Featured in a
networking event at Spelman
College on October 7, 2010.
1981
Tanya Walton Pratt
Professional: Confirmed by U.S.
Senate for a seat on the federal
bench in the southern district of
Indiana. She is the first African
American to be named a federal
judge in Indiana.
1983
Carretta Holliday Eke
Professional: Celebrated 11 years
of success for the Call Center Times,
the Eke family business.
1984
Rosalind G. Brewer
Professional: Opening speaker for
GreenBusiness Works Expo in
Atlanta in October 2010 as an
executive vice president of Walmart
and regional head of America’s
largest retailer. Named one of
Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful
Women in 2010.
1986
Dázon Dixon Diallo
Professional: Featured in The
Center for Health Disparities
Research & Education’s “Healthy
Loving is Healthy Living: Women
Taking Risks for Love in the Age of
HIV/AIDS,” talk on November 18,
2010, at Spelman College.
1988
April Barnett
Professional: Launched Fuzzy
Babies, a pet-sitting business, in
2010.
Mia Fuse Chidebelu-Eze
Education: Received her MBA in
public administration from Ashford
University in Clinton, Iowa, in
November 2010.
Melynee Leftridge
Professional: Appointed judge on
the Magistrate Court of Fulton
County on July 22, 2010.
Subriana McFadden Pierce
Professional: Recognized by The
Network Journal as one of the “25
Influential Black Women in
Business” for 2011 and featured in
the November 2010 issue of People
on the Move.
1989
Monica McCoy Purdy
Professional: Appointed in June,
2010, as an associate municipal
court judge for the City of Dallas,
Texas. The appointment is for a
two-year term.
Tomika DePriest
Professional: Named to the Board
of Directors of Public Broadcasting
Atlanta (WABE 90.1FM and PBA30). Also, Ms. DePriest was voted
chair-elect of the Black Women
Film Network. She will become the
new board chair June 2011.
1990
Traci Blackwell
Professional: Named in the
September 2010 issue of Essence
magazine as a speaker for the
Unleash the Power in You
Women’s Conference.
Ngiri Lawrence
Professional: Left her position at
Comcast on December 23, 2010,
to run her franchise, Granny
Nannies, full-time.
1991
Tracey Hughes
Professional: Launched a
devotional blog, in October 2010.
She also writes the column, “Pew
Talk,” on her church’s website.
1992
Marlisa Johnson
Professional: Appointed to the
Advisory Board of the University of
California College Prep Online
Program.
23
1993
Shari Mattison Coleman
Professional: Celebrated 11th
Anniversary as first lady of Fifth
Street Missionary Baptist Church
in Norman, Oklahoma.
Karin Gist
Professional: Writer for top ranked
Disney Original Movie, Camp
Rock 2: The Final Jam, which
premiered on September 3, 2010.
Elyce Strong Mann
Married: Seith Mann, in Atlanta
on April 3, 2010.
Tameka Montgomery
Professional: Appointed to The
Colorado Black Chamber of
Commerce board of directors for
2011.
Darla Lynn Neal
Birth: Daughter Zoe Elektra born
on November 17, 2009.
Professional: Named assistant
principal for the University Prep
Science and Math Middle School
in Detroit in March 2010.
Toni Herron Savage
Married: Mark Savage at the
Intercontinental Hotel O’Hare in
Rosemont, Illinois, on October 23,
2010. Their wedding was featured
in the October 31, 2010, issue of
The New York Times.
Kai Williams Slaton
Education: Received her master of
library science degree from the
University of North Texas, College
of Information in August 2010.
Maricia Bennekin Woodham
Professional: Promoted to
administrative law judge with the
Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission on January 3, 2011.
1994
Cherise Belnavis Johnson
Professional: Served as chair for
the Martin Luther King, Jr.,
national holiday celebration
planning committee for the city of
Charlotte. She was the mistress of
ceremonies at their event on
January 17, 2011. Also, Candra
Davis, C’96, participated in the
event with the Leap of Faith Dance
Company.
24
Tara Jones
Professional: Recently joined BET
Networks as vice president for
public affairs.
1997
Yvette Brown
Married: James E. Brown IV at
The Word Church in Warrensville
Heights, Ohio, on May 23.
1995
Shani Curry
Professional: Accepted a position
at SUNY Canton, teaching
criminal justice.
Keyoka Smith
Birth: Son Hampton Michael Ade
Smith born November 11, 2010.
Mendi Lewis Obadike
Professional: Recently completed a
three-year postdoctoral fellowship
at Princeton University and was
appointed assistant professor in
humanities and media studies at
Pratt Institute. She is also an artistin-residence at the Tribeca Center
for Performing Arts and a poetry
editor for Fence magazine, an
online publication.
Morrisa Rice
Professional: Recognized by
Surgeon General Vice Admiral
Regina Benjamin for role as
lieutenant commander and senior
public health analyst and received
the 2009 Health Service Responder
of the Year award on May 25,
2010.
1996
Candra Davis
Professional: Participated with the
Leap of Faith Dance Company in
the Martin Luther King, Jr.
national holiday celebration for the
city of Charlotte on January 17,
2011. Cherise Belnavis Johnson,
C’94, served as chair of the
planning committee for the event.
Jamila Hunter
Professional: Named vice president
of comedy development for ABC.
Andrea Ford Wilkerson
Professional: Appointed consumer
& market knowledge (CMK) senior
manager for North America Baby
Care and Relationship Marketing
on February 15, 2011. She will provide CMK leadership across the
North America Pampers business to
influence strategies and grow the
business. Additionally, she will play
a pivotal role in shaping the course
for developing relationship marketing across the globe.
Tiffanie Stuckie
Birth: Daughter Corine Kimberly
Stucky born May 10, 2010.
1998
Tia Fuller
Professional: Mentioned in the
article, “Turn Your Headphones
Up: A Jazz Crib Sheet,” written by
Jalylah Burrell, C’2002, on
September 20, 2010, in Clutch
Magazine online.
Christina Hayes
Married: Paul Miller, July 4, 2010,
Atlanta.
Avery Sunshine (Denise White)
Professional: Performed in I
Dream: The Story of a Preacher From
Atlanta directed by Jasmine Guy at
The Alliance Stage at the Woodruff
Arts Center in Atlanta, July 2010.
Nia Lancelin, C’2009, and Jazmine
Dinkins, C’2010, were also a part of
the cast. Featured in September
2010 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
article, “Avery Sunshine Brings
Warmth in New CD,” highlighting
her new self-titled album.
1999
Malikha Mallette
Professional: Selected as one of the
top 10 finalists for “Live with Regis
and Kelly’s Women of Radio CoHost for a Day Search” in August
2010.
A. R. Tulani Grundy Meadows
Married: Othello H. Meadows III
in Atlanta on September 12, 2010.
The wedding was featured on
Essence.com’s “Bridal Bliss.”
2000
Tai Beauchamp
Professional: Featured in the
article, “Closet Envy: Tai
Beauchamp,” on October 6, 2010,
on Essence.com. She also emceed
the 20th Anniversary Covenant
House Candlelight Vigil in Times
Square in New York on November
16, 2010.
Phylicia Fant
Professional: Promoted to vice
president, media relations, at
Universal Motown Records in May
2010.
Jeanine Hays
Professional: Featured in the
article, “Stylemaker Spotlight:
Jeanine Hays, Legal Eagle Trades
Cases for Design,” in the Home
section of the January 9, 2011, issue
of the San Francisco Chronicle and
SFGate.com.
Kimya Imani Jackson
Professional: One of the featured
images in the How Philly Moves
exhibition, mural and video.
K. Jacquelyn Omotalade
Professional: Named in the article
“40 Under 40: From the Verizon
Studio,” in the November 2010
issue of Pittsburgh Magazine.
2001
Andrea Jackson Butler
Married: Richard Butler, Jr., in
Atlanta on October 2, 2010.
Melanie E. Jones
Professional: Named the 2010
Young Professional of the Year by
the Chamber of Commerce in
Columbia, South Carolina. Ò
Danica Camille Tisdale
Married: Damany Morris Fisher in
Charleston, South Carolina, on
October 30, 2010.
Joy Singleton
Birth: Son Marcus Singleton II
born on April 25, 2010.
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
Take Note!
Actress Rolonda Watts, C’80, starred in the Christmas movie,
“Christmas Mail,” released in December 2010. The film is a holiday romantic comedy also starring Ashley Scott and A.J. Buckley.
Ernestine W. Brazeal, C’63, and Sylvia T. Robinson, C’65,
traveled to Nairobi, Kenya in November 2010 to celebrate Ms.
Brazeal’s 70th birthday. The pair, who attended Spelman’s
nursery school together, were hosted by Wambui Ngugi,
C’2002, and her family. Ms. Brazeal met Ms. Ngugi when she
was 14 in Nairobi. After hearing of Ms. Ngugi’s desire to attend
Spelman to become a leader in her country, Ms. Brazeal with the
help of her family and her community, sponsored all expenses
and provided room and board at her home. Ms. Ngugi, a
Political Science major, earned her degree in four years and
currently works in The Office of the President where she plays
an important role in the reworking of the constitution, including
services to the youth, the handicapped and disenfranchised
populations of Kenya.
On August 22, 2010, Christine King Farris, C’48, and Isaac
Newton Farris, Sr. renewed their marriage vows on their 50th
wedding anniversary. The ceremony took place at Ebenezer
Baptist Church in Atlanta with a reception immediately following at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. Ms. King Farris and
Virginia T. Dowell, C’47, were mentioned in the Oct. 29Nov.4, 2010, issue of the Atlanta Voice in the Metro
Roundup previewing the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College Atlanta Chapter’s 33rd
Scholarship Brunch and Fashion Show where both
women were honored.
WXIA 11Alive TV in Atlanta aired “Finishing the
Dream: Learning from the Civil Rights Era,” on December
11, 2010, at 2 p.m. and on myAtlTV, Channel 36 at 9
p.m. The town hall meeting was taped in the Cosby
Academic Center Auditorium on September 16 and
featured President Beverly Daniel Tatum, Elder Bernice
King, C’85, and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
The Honorable Harriet M. Murphy, C’49, and The
Honorable Bernette Johnson, C’64, were inducted into the
National Bar Association Hall of Fame at the 24th Annual Hall
of Fame Luncheon during the National Bar Association’s 85th
annual Convention & Exhibits in New Orleans at the New
Orleans Marriott on August 12, 2010. This is the highest honor
bestowed by the National Bar Association upon members of the
Bar who have served long and gallantly in the pursuit of justice
and equality before the courts of the United States of America.
Judge Murphy was featured in two newspaper articles, The Villager
in Austin, TX, on
September 3, 2010
regarding her induction
and in The Daily Texan
on August 2, 2010, in
the article “Former
Austin Judge Talks
Texas Admissions.”
Jerri DeVard, C’79, Spelman College Trustee, was
appointed executive vice president and chief marketing officer
for Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones. She
started her new role, based in the London office, on January
1, 2011, and is responsible for all of Nokia’s marketing,
brand management, communications and selected industry
collaboration activities. Her announcement was featured in
numerous print and online media outlets.
S P R I N G
2 0 1 1
25
2002
Jalylah Burrell
Professional: Wrote the article,
“Turn Your Headphones Up: A
Jazz Crib Sheet,” published on
September 20, 2010, in Clutch
Magazine online.
Kafia Haile
Professional: Earned a certificate
in interfaith conflict resolution
from the United States Institute of
Peace in 2009, the Global War on
Terrorism Civilian Service Medal
from the United States Department
of Defense in 2009 and began
serving as a cultural analyst for
ADDX Corporation.
Jade Irving
Professional: Launched a clothing
drive for Dress for Success Atlanta
via her blog, PeachCityStyle.com,
in November 2010.
2003
Lynnette D. Espy
Professional: Elected treasurer of
the National Bar Association’s
Young Lawyers Division during the
organization’s 85th annual
convention held in New Orleans in
August 2010.
Meagan Tolentino Garland
Married: Voltaire Rico Sterling
(Morehouse) at Old South Church
in Boston. Their marriage was
featured in the December 13,
2010, issue of Jet magazine.
Jocelyn M. Griffin
Education: Received her J.D. from
Quinnipiac University School of
Law.
Courtney Jones
Education: Received a master’s
degree of public health from
Georgia State University in May
2010.
Shayla Gordon
Birth: Twins Arielle Grace and
Israel Glenn born on November 9,
2010, in Georgia.
Titilayo Tinubu
Education: Awarded a full
scholarship to attend the University
of California – Berkeley School of
Law beginning in the fall 2010.
26
2004
Ahsaki Baptist
Professional: Honored by the
Young Lawyers Division of the
Tennessee Bar Association as a Star
of the Quarter for her work in
developing the Diversity Leadership
Institute in November 2010.
for the D.C. Teaching Fellows
through the New Teacher Project
in Washington, D.C.
Anatasha Crawford
Professional: Participated in the
panel discussion, “How to Select a
Graduate School,” on September
30, 2010, at Spelman College.
Joined the Spelman College faculty
through the Fellowship in Research
and Science Teaching Program.
2008
Acasia Barrett
Married: Christopher Olson
(Morehouse) in Fort Belvoir,
Virginia on May 30, 2010.
Johnecia Hardaway
Education: Earned her doctorate
in business administration with a
concentration in international
business from Argosy University.
Maya Prabhu
Professional: Joined the Patch as an
editor in September 2010. Her work
can be seen at GlenBurniePatch.com.
Victoria Ward
Professional: Joined The National
Council on Aging as administrative
project coordinator in December
2010.
2005
Christina Arthur
Professional: Participated in a
delegation of transportation
engineers who traveled to different
cities in China in November 2010,
exchanging ideas about
transportation planning with local
representatives.
Chelsey Rodgers
Professional: Included in the 2010
edition of Who’s Who in Black
Washington, D.C. She received an
award at an official ceremony held
in Washington on September 15,
2010.
2007
Chantel Monique Bryant
Professional: Began serving as a
Mental Health Court monitor in
Jacksonville, Florida, in January 2011.
Kristen Jarrett
Professional: Accepted a position
in November 2010 as the new
recruitment and staffing manager
Jasmine Smothers
Professional: Serving as associate
pastor at Atlanta First United
Methodist Church.
Hellana Irene Hayes
Married: Shannon Jerome Cox at
The Ridgedale Church of Christ in
Chattanooga on August 28, 2010.
Jessica Rowland
Professional: Keynote Address
speaker for Spelman’s Summer
Research Symposium on Friday,
July 23, 2010.
Paige Simpson
Professional: Promoted to
recruiting and talent development
manager for Disability
Group, Inc. in Los Angeles.
2009
Yada Beener
Professional: Launched a daycare
service for young children in the
Atlanta area.
Cassi Davis
Professional: Performed the song,
“We Are Christmas,” with the
Spelman College Glee Club during
the 84th Annual Morehouse/
Spelman College Christmas Carol
Concert in December 2010.
Tiwanna Gifford
Professional: Featured writer in
Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s
Opinion section in the article
“Giving Foster Children a Voice”
in the July 22, 2010, edition.
Nia Lancelin
Professional: Performed in I
Dream: The Story of a Preacher
From Atlanta, directed by Jasmine
Guy at The Alliance Stage at the
Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta,
July 2010. Jazmine Dinkins,
C’2010, and Avery Sunshine
(Denise White), C’98, were also a
part of the cast.
Kyasha Moore
Professional: Conducted research
in Salvador da Bahia on
reproductive healthcare access for
Afro-Brasilian women in 2010.
Roxanne Samuels
Education: Participated in a
medical mission trip with Florida
State University College of
Medicine to Managua, Nicaragua,
in July 2010.
2010
Jazmine Dinkins
Professional: Performed in I
Dream: The Story of a Preacher
From Atlanta, directed by Jasmine
Guy at The Alliance Stage at the
Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta,
July 2010. Nia Lancelin, C’2009
and Avery Sunshine (Denise
White), C’98, were also a part of
the cast.
Daryllynn Nelson
Professional: Traveled to
Tanzania, Africa, to conduct public
health research sponsored by a
grant awarded to Spelman and
Morehouse Colleges by the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Erica Wherry
Professional: Profiled in the article,
“A Conyers Girl in Madagascar,” in
the RockdaleNews.com on
November 25, 2010, highlighting
her 27-month Peace Corps
assignment to teach English in
Madagascar.
Corin White
Education: Pictured in the article,
“Professors Use Local Environment
to Increase Their Research Efforts,”
published October 28, 2010, in the
Kansas State Collegian online.
Remington Rochelle Wiley
Professional: Pictured in
“EbonyJet” online magazine’s
“Campus Queens” profile in June
2010.
Ashlei Williams
Professional: Selected as one of six
2010–2011 Urban Prep Academy
Fellows.
S P E L M A N
M E S S E N G E R
Take Note!
“Access Hollywood” television journalist
Shaun Robinson’s, C’84, recent visit to
Atlanta was covered in the AJC.com on
November 26, 2010. Ms. Robinson was in
Atlanta to interview and be interviewed by
television show host, Mo’Nique. She also
co-hosted this year’s Rose Parade with
The Today Show star Al Roker on January 1,
2011, on NBC.
On November 7, 2010, Major General Marcelite J. Harris,
C’64 was honored with the Trailblazer Award at Black Girls
Rock!, an awards show on BET highlighting the accomplishments
of exceptional women of color who have made outstanding contributions in their careers, and who stand as inspirational and
positive role models in their communities. Other honorees
included actresses Ruby Dee and Raven-Symone; and author
Dr. Iyanla Vanzant.
Wanda Brown-Cook, C’72, has been named Atlanta Public
Schools High School Teacher of the Year 2010-2011. She is a
teacher of American literature and a writer’s workshop at Carver
School of the Arts. Her non-traditional teaching strategies motivate students to make steady progress over the years. Her goal is
to develop students into critical and independent thinkers. She
often says, “Our children are our greatest investment. Let us
deposit our manpower, time, and money to receive a great profit.”
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed named Cathy Hampton, C’89, his
choice for City Attorney of the City of Atlanta on September 17,
2010. Ms. Hampton is the former chief legal officer, general
counsel and secretary at RARE Hospitality International, Inc.
Her areas of expertise include the management of litigation,
employment, real estate, licensing, team development, outside
counsel, cost containment measures and budgeting. She was chosen from five candidates recommended to Mayor Reed and City
of Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Peter Aman by a 10-member
search committee; and confirmed by The Atlanta City Council.
On November 11, 2010, Stacey Abrams, C’95, was chosen by
Democrats in the Georgia House as the minority leader for the
2011 legislative session. This is the top position for the Democrats and Ms. Abrams is the first woman to hold the position in
Georgia.
Susan Johnson, C’83,
appeared on The Today Show
on August 12, 2010 on a
“Today’s Working Woman”
segment discussing whether
working moms are penalized
by employers. Shown here
with Ann Curry (left) of the
The Today Show and her
son, Cameron Kinder.
On August 25, 2010, Heineken USA announced the appointment of Kheri Holland Tillman, C’92, as vice president of trade
marketing and sales strategy to help focus and enhance the company’s efforts in creating the industry standard in delivering
marketing programs to wholesalers, retailers and consumers. She
joined the company in 2007 as vice president for the Amstel
Light and Dos Equis brands.
Dr. Fleda Jackson, C’73, received the Live United Award from
the metropolitan Atlanta United Way in 2010 for her work as
the co-chair for the Babies Born Healthy Initiative. She was also
nominated and approved by the White House and the Secretary
of Health and Human Services to serve on the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality.
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During the month of February 2011, more than 280 metro
Atlanta McDonald’s restaurants honored Selena Sloan Butler,
H.S. 1881, by offering a commemorative tray liner featuring Ms.
Butler and a link for children ages 6–12 to go online and take the
McDonald’s Nuggets of Knowledge Black History Quiz. Ms. Butler organized the first National Congress of Colored Parents and
Teachers and co-founded the National Congress of Parents and
Teachers, which is now the National Parent Teacher Association.
27
Take Note!
Literary great Alice Walker
(former student) wrote the
article, “Saying Goodbye to
My Friend Howard Zinn,”
published in The Boston
Globe and Boston.com on
January 31, 2010. The piece
poignantly chronicles their
relationship, leading off with
their initial meeting as student
and teacher at Spelman College. In an October 2010
Writer’s Digest interview, Ms.
Walker stated that “Writing is
not different from life – you
want variety, you want
refreshment and you want
balance.” Last year, Ms.
Walker added two books to
her canon, Overcoming
Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern
Congo and Palestine/Israel, and a poetry collection, Hard Times
Require Furious Dancing. She posts her new poems and essays
regularly at www.alicewalkersgarden.com.
Keisha Knight Pulliam,
C’2001, appeared on the
BET show, “106 and Park,”
on December 1, 2010. She
was also featured in People
Magazine’s Television Shows
that Changed Our Lives:
Great Moments and Guilty
Pleasures 1970-2010, issue
on display through December 10, 2010.
Dr. Georgianne Thomas, C’64, was featured in the article,
“Spelman College Alumna Tells Untold Story of Classmates’
Involvement in Civil Rights Movement in New Documentary,”
in the Atlanta Daily World, November 27, 2010 issue. Dr.
Thomas is the creator and executive producer of the documentary, “Foot Soliders: Class of 1964,” slated to be completed in
2011. The project, directed by her daughter Alvelyn Sanders, was
created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their student
activism as freshmen through their graduation.
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Christine Crawford, C’94, was featured on the Wall Street
Journal cover and article “On McDonald’s Menu: Variety,
Caution” in the December 27, 2010, issue. The article highlights the recent changes in McDonald’s look and hours as well
as the increase in healthier menu options. Franchise owners,
Ms. Crawford and her mother, Dee, are pictured and profiled
in the piece and discuss the evolution of their five restaurants.
Brigitte Daniel, C’99, was named one of seven 2011 Eisenhower USA Fellows announced by General Colin L. Powell,
Chairman of Eisenhower Fellowships. The Fellows spend 4-5
weeks abroad in a country or countries of their choosing.
While abroad they pursue an individually-designed program in
their field of interest. The program, customized to meet the
goals of the Eisenhower Fellow, includes meetings with local
experts and leaders in the Fellow’s field, and generally includes
cultural site visits and hospitality.
Award-winning novelist, journalist and playwright, Pearl
Cleage’s, C’71, play The Nacirema Society: Requests the Honor of
Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years
ran at the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center in
Atlanta from October 20 – November 14, 2010. The story is
centered around The Nacirema Society of Montgomery,
Alabama who is scheduled to celebrate its 100th anniversary
with a cotillion. The gala introduces six African-American debutantes to polite society each year, however the year is 1964 and
society is no longer “polite.” The play’s cast included Andrea
Frye, C’67, Karen Kendrick, C’98 and actress Jasmine Guy.
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Take Note!
On October 4, 2010, the stars came out to
the historic Plaza Hotel in New York to
raise nearly $2 million in scholarship funds
at the Spelman Blue Gala. Spearheaded by
Blue Visionaries Jerri L. DeVard, C’79,
Spelman College Trustee, and actress
LaTanya Richardson Jackson, C’71, the
sold-out event welcomed celebrities from
the private and public sectors including
radio and television personality Steve Harvey,
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actresses
Lynn Whitfield and Cecily Tyson, comedian
Chris Rock, television journalists Deborah
Roberts and Al Roker, and entertainment
reporter, Shaun Robinson, C’84.
Richardson Jackson’s husband, actor Samuel
L. Jackson, served as the master of ceremonies for
the evening that featured a tribute to honorees
Mary J. Blige, Grammy award-winning singer;
Rosalind Brewer, C’84, Executive Vice
President and President-South, Wal-Mart;
Kathryn Chenault, Esq.; and Marian Wright
Edelman, C’60, President and Founder,
Children’s Defense Fund. Famed film director
Spike Lee, whose mother and grandmother
attended Spelman, was the reception host while
actress Alfre Woodard was the evening’s MC
presenter. Actor Anthony Anderson and
television personality Star
Jones led the live auction.
The backbone of Blue’s
success was the team of “Blue
Champions,” including Marilyn Booker, C’82, Judith I.
Byrd, Kathryn C. Chenault,
Esq., Sharon Collier, Malaak
Compton-Rock, Kim Davis,
C’81, Dawn Hudson, Melanie
Kusin, Gwen Adams Norton,
Marva Smalls, Sharon Taylor,
Pauletta Pearson Washington,
and Janice Savin Williams.
Kelly Mitchell, C’2005,
and Kelli Coleman, C’2006,
led GlobalHue’s, a marketing
communications agency and
Blue supporter, creative development and production of
both the gala invitations and
the gala program journal.
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29
Varnette Patricia Honeywood, C’72
December 27, 1950 – September 12, 2010
In Memoriam
In Her Own Words …
30
Varnette Patricia Honeywood was born on
December 27, 1950, in the Watts community
of Los Angeles to the late Stepney Robinson
Honeywood and Lovie Varnette Allen Honeywood. She was the second surviving child of
three children born to this union.
Varnette and her sister Stephanie confessed
Christ at an early age. They were baptized on
the same day at Messiah Missionary Baptist
church in Los Angeles by Reverend Whalen S.
Jones. She was a member of the youth choir,
the youth usher board, and the Baptist Training Union (BTU). Reverend Whalen S. Jones
and Mrs. Jones were a very important part of
her early life.
Varnette attended Mona Park Elementary
School in Willowbrook, California. She also
attended Virginia Road Elementary School in
Los Angeles. She attended Mount Vernon
Junior High School and graduated from Los
Angeles High School. She was a member of
the arts clubs and president of the Thalian
Fine Arts Club from 1965–1968.
Both Honeywood girls and and their
cousins, Joyce Faye Allen and Carolyn (Allen)
Roper were members of the Xinos, a youth
group for teenage girls. All later became teachers, college professors and counselors. Varnette
later became a Soror in the Beta Phi Chapter
of the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, a
professional organization of educators.
Varnette’s parents were instrumental in her
thinking, particularly in regard to how she
should live her life. Her father taught her
lessons through parables and stories. Her mother
took her to visit her maternal grandparents,
Vera and Hermon, in McComb, Mississippi
and to visit her paternal grandfather, Jeff
Honeywood in St. Joseph, Louisiana, to
spend quality time and to teach her respect for
her elders. Lovie Honeywood led by example.
Both parents were loving and tough elementary school teachers. They were passionate
about teachers and teaching!
Varnette and her sister learned more than
words could say about surviving and thriving
in a hostile environment that came to a head
with the Civil Rights Movement and the
Black Power Movement. Varnette found her
footing culturally and politically in the Black
Power Movement. She graduated from Spelman College in 1972 with a bachelor of arts
degree in fine arts. She never forgot the
encouragement from her drawing instructor,
Joseph Ross, who was the first person to
encourage her to become a professional artist.
Her painting instructor, Dr. Floyd Coleman,
taught her a great deal about painting and
content. In the ’70s, Dr. Coleman, who had
become chairman of the art department of
Jackson State University in Mississippi,
invited Varnette to come to Jackson State to
encourage his young women art students. She
was honored by this invitation.
Varnette joined the Teacher Corp UrbanCorrections training program in the School of
Education at USC in 1972. She earned a master of science in education in 1974. She
received a K–12 California State Teaching
Credential in 1974. She was a teacher in the
Los Angeles County Special Schools for a
short period, but in 1975 she became the
coordinator and later the director of art programs for the Joint Project at USC. Varnette
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was able to use her education and her training to design art
programs for young people. She designed programs that
would allow anyone to become involved in creating. She had
a special sensitivity and respect for culture in designing an art
curriculum.
Varnette learned about the National Conference of Artists
(NCA) by chance. The NCA was having a meeting at Cal
Polytechnic State University Pomona (Cal Poly) in Pomona,
California. There she became reconnected with some of her
instructors and guest artists that she had met at the Atlanta
University Center. The next year, 1975, Varnette met Roland
Freeman and Worth Long at the NCA meeting in Jackson,
Mississippi. They traveled with her to McComb, Mississippi, to meet her grandparents. Roland and Worth
introduced her to the idea of African retentions. Varnette
attributed her feeling of stability and confidence to the
knowledge she gained from members of this organization.
Varnette and Stephanie founded Black Lifestyles in 1976.
Black Lifestyles would later become a fully family-operated
business and a key to much joy in the Honeywood family.
Both parents retired and then worked in the business until
poor health kept them from active participation. Varnette
and her sister created a business out of the need for self-determination. The success of Black Lifestyles was based upon
hard work and upon the contributions of many others who
supported this business in many ways. Theresa Patterson,
LaKeeta Howard and Grayland Steele all worked for Black
Lifestyles at some point.
Unfortunately, in 1990, Stephanie was diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis. Her remaining years were filled with overcoming obstacles, learning new ways of doing things and
igniting creativity – with lots of love. From 1994–2007, Varnette was both an artist and a caregiver. She continued to
work and to create throughout these years. Her father’s
favorite saying was “Never Stop a Working Man.” Her sister’s
favorite saying was “Make My Row.” Varnette’s favorite saying was a Ghanaian proverb, “Learning From the Past in
Building the Future.” A family favorite was from Alex Haley’s
Roots: “This Family Gon Move Forward.” She and her father
shared this saying weekly while they were working to build
Black Lifestyles and work as a family.
Her services were held on September 24, 2010, at Messiah
Baptist Church in Los Angeles.
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31
April 18, 2011 Dear Alumna, On behalf of the Office of Alumnae Affairs of Spelman College, we would like to extend our heartfelt apologies to Mrs. Gwendolyn Kenner‐Johnson, C’63, for the egregious error of reporting her death in the In Memoriam section of the Spelman Messenger, Spring 2011. The death of Mrs. Kenner‐Johnson’s husband was incorrectly recorded as her own. We realize that an error of this magnitude has caused undue pain, stress and strain on Mrs. Kenner‐Johnson, her classmates and friends that can never be recovered, and for this we are very sorry. We are thankful that Mrs. Kenner‐Johnson, an active member of the Chicago NAASC chapter, is well and continues to give her time, talents and treasures to Spelman College. Although we have a protocol in place to acknowledge alumnae deaths, there was a breach in this process. We are committed to strengthening this protocol to ensure that an incident of this nature does not occur again. Respectfully, Sharon Owens, C’76 Director of Alumnae Affairs Jo Moore Stewart Director of Publications Editor, Spelman Messenger In Memoriam
1941
Penelope Laconia Bullock
Educator
Died: December 25, 2010
Services: December 30, 2010
at Murray Brothers Cascade
Chapel in Atlanta.
1943
Ernestine Wallace Gipson
Social Worker
Died: August 9, 2010
Jerodene Gaines Lynch
Died: December 2010
Annette Evans
Died: December 12, 2010
Services: December 22, 2010
at Beulah Baptist Church in
Atlanta
Myrtice Willis Dye
Educator
Died: December 10, 2010
Services: December 18, 2010,
at Wheat Street Baptist
Church in Atlanta.
Bettye Peterson Johnson
Died: September 11, 2010
1973
Juanita Law Barnes
Died: September 4, 2010
1956
Guilda Mizell Bryant
Died August 29, 2010
1957
Vivian Stodghill Williamson
Died: September 20, 2010
1960
Barbara Ann Simspon
LeSeur
Died: January 1, 2011
1963
Gwendolyn Kenner-Johnson
Died: September 2010
1964
Renee Adkins Alexander
Died: November 20, 2010
1976
Soneni (Denise Bryant)
Smith
Died: September 4, 2010
Services: September 10, 2010,
Christ United Methodist
Church, Piscataway, New
Jersey.
Rosa Fortune Gregg
Died: April 9, 2010
Services: April 17, 2010,
Mount Pleasant High School,
Elliott, South Carolina.
1979
Cassandra Jordan
Died: October 17, 2010
1987
Camille Yvette Hart-Shaw
Realtor
Died: December 3, 2010
Services: December 9, 2010,
New Mountain Top Baptist
Church, Winston, Georgia.
1990
Angela Rozier
Died: October 12, 2010
Services: October 15, 2010,
Resurrection House for All
Nations Church, Union City,
Georgia.
1995
Kendra Rochelle Manuel
Died: October 23, 2010
Services: October 30, 2010, at
Galilee Baptist Church,
Shreveport, Louisiana.
2012
Adrienne Bauduit
Died: January 5, 2011
Services: January 12, 2011 at
Sisters Chapel, Spelman
College
PHOTO: JULIE YARBROUGH, C’91
1947
Josie Latimer Williams
Manager
Died: December 17, 2010
Services: December 28, 2010,
at Carl M. Williams Chapel in
Atlanta.
1950
Irene Bennett Schmoke Reid
Died: January 11, 2011
Services: January 15, 2011, at
Bethel AME Church in
Baltimore, Maryland.
32
S P E L M A N
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“Greens for Money, Peas for Luck” by Varnette P. Honeywood
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PA I D
Atlanta, Georgia
Permit No. 1569
350 Spelman Lane S.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30314
www.spelman.edu
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